Boston College Hands Northwestern First Home Loss Since 2020

EVANSTON, Ill. — With No. 2 Northwestern launching a late-stage comeback against No. 1 Boston College in Ryan Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon, Shea Dolce pondered a pregame premonition she’d harped on throughout the week’s preparations.

Dolce, who saw her first major collegiate action nearly two years earlier in Evanston, said she expected freshman midfielder Devon Russell to soar on a field packed with All-Americans and Tewaaraton caliber talent.

“I turned to one of my defenders this week and said, ‘Devon is going to score a crucial goal in this game, and it’s going to come at such a crucial moment,’” Dolce said. “She plays like an upperclassman; she has a ton of leadership [and] she does not hide in the dark. She is just someone who has really shone bright these first couple games.”

Following a scoring drought of 21 minutes, 15 seconds by the visiting team, Russell fulfilled Dolce’s prophetic praise, burying her fourth goal of the season to extend her team’s lead to 11-8 with just over four minutes remaining. Russell was one of eight different scorers who fueled the Eagles’ 13-9 victory over the Wildcats.

The result ended a 47-game home winning streak for Northwestern (2-1), which last fell in Ryan Fieldhouse on March 9, 2020, in a 20-18 defeat to North Carolina.

Entering the game, Boston College (3-0) coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein emphasized getting off to a quick start. The Eagles met their coach’s command, ripping off a 6-0 run in the opening 18 minutes.

“You can’t play in the beginning — against a team like this — tentative, so we just sort of went the opposite [direction],” Walker-Weinstein said. “We were like, ‘We have to win the first quarter.’”

Boston College’s free-flowing attack delivered goals from all directions in a dominant first-half display. While the Eagles’ typical big three of Mckenna Davis, Rachel Clark and Emma LoPinto pitched in three goals in the first two periods, other contributors took center stage to help Boston College build an 8-4 halftime advantage.

Midfielder Kylee Colbert and attacker Molly Driscoll, two sophomores who contributed sporadic minutes during the Eagles’ 2024 national title run, combined for five first-half goals. By the game’s conclusion, Colbert and Driscoll both finished with hat tricks.

“This is such a different team this year, and that’s what we’ve been focusing on all week long,” Colbert said. “We really went into today being like, ‘This isn’t a rematch. It’s just another game. Who’s coming to play better today?’”

Driscoll said her attack’s collective strength has allowed her to find individual success at the season’s early juncture.

“They’re some of the best attackers ever,” Driscoll said. “Each time a different person scores, everyone is excited, everyone plays a part in it.”

Although Mia Mascone and Clark scored two quick-fire conversions to extend Boston College’s lead to 10-4 with 10:20 left in the third quarter, Northwestern sparked a major momentum shift midway through the period. With Madison Taylor and Emerson Bohlig packing a potent one-two punch, the Wildcats cut the deficit to 10-7 entering the final quarter.

In an apparent 180-degree rotation from May’s national championship clash, Northwestern continuously crept back into contention in a once-lopsided affair.

“That’s what we want to be,” Wildcat coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “We want to have that never-give-up mentality and just fight hard and play in the moment.”

Just over three minutes into the fourth quarter, Bohlig buried her third goal of the afternoon to bring the game back within two goals. Meanwhile, the Northwestern defense — anchored by Sammy White — showed no signs of relenting.

The moment gave Walker-Weinstein’s group its first crunch-time test of the young season. Two years ago, she saw a four-goal halftime lead evaporate in the same facility against an Izzy Scane-led Wildcat squad. This time, the veteran-laden visitors wouldn’t repeat the same fate.

Walker-Weinstein said her team’s composure despite the game’s twists proved a testament to Boston College’s leadership.

“They were really coachable today,” Walker-Weinstein said. “The coaches were a little frantic, which maybe contributed to the players being a little frantic. We’ll take a quick look at that, but I’m just so proud of them. They were amazing. [Northwestern] is an amazing team, obviously Kelly is the best coach of all time, so I’m just happy we pulled it off.”

While Russell’s lone tally with 4:09 remaining gave the Eagles more breathing room, the Wildcats possessed one more trick up their sleeve. Taylor notched the final point of her three-goal, three-assist performance with a helper to Taylor Lapointe at the 3:29 mark, but Colbert and Shea Baker’s late goals sealed a 13-9 Boston College victory.

The nine-goal output was Northwestern’s lowest scoring total since May 14, 2023, against Michigan — an 8-7 NCAA tournament win. Dolce, who recorded six saves Saturday, deflected credit to her defensive unit.

“I’m just so proud to see the unit we’ve turned into these first three games,” Dolce said. “There was a lot of doubt in this unit throughout the country. To be able to come out here at Northwestern and put on a defensive masterclass, we maintain discipline, we work together and we had some huge momentum swings that helped our team.”