It’s said that bad things come in threes.
Daria Jones couldn’t have proved that any more wrong.
The junior added to her already hot start to the season by finding the back of the net three times on Saturday to power Rowan to a 5-2 win against New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) foe William Paterson University. Jones has two hat tricks in six games, putting her goal total at lucky number eight.
A transfer from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Jones attributes her newly found success on the difference in formation compared to her time as a Knight.
“At my old school, we played a different formation, so I played a different role then I’m playing here now,” Jones said. “Here, we’re playing two up-top, so it allows me to move around the field more freely.”
Jones’ 18 points this year is already three times more than her total in two seasons at FDU. There’s that rule of three working for good rather than bad.
“I thought she [Jones] did very well,” head coach Scott Leacott said. “The first 20 minutes I thought we played some of the best soccer that we’ve played all year. She gave us a quick lead and finished it off with a 3-0.”
The Profs were able to quickly go up 3-0 at halftime behind two Jones goals and junior Darah Wagner’s goal just past the 15 minute mark.
The second half came around and brought controversy along with it.
Ahead 5-1 with the final whistle awaiting its call, the Pioneers scored their second goal at the 86 minute; one that maybe should’ve never counted.
“The second goal should never have happened,” Leacott said. “Actually, the referee apologized to me after the game. Our kid just got cleaned out. He was kind of reffing towards the score. They didn’t make the call, the kid turned around shot and scored. There’s nothing you can do. I mean, the game was already at the end, but he [the referee] did apologize to me.”
Despite the possible poor judgement by the officiating crew, the brown and gold headed home with their first NJAC victory of the season and improved their winning streak to five.
Unfortunately, Rowan’s scheduled game against Arcadia University on Tuesday was rescheduled to Tuesday, Oct. 16. Per Rowan Athletics’ official site, Arcadia has to make up a contest with Christopher Newport University that was cancelled due to Hurricane Florence.
The Profs are set to play home against Montclair at home on September 22.
For comments/questions about this story, email sports@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitOnline.
