Cardinals Fall Just Short To No. 2 Cortland
BOX SCORE
The 19
th-ranked St. John Fisher College Cardinals gave SUNY Cortland, the second ranked team in the country all it could handle Thursday with the visitors pulling out a 15-12 victory at Growney Stadium.
With the loss Fisher falls to 9-4 on the season while Cortland improves to 13-0.
After trailing 10-7 at the break Fisher was able to cut into the Red Dragons lead paced behind the goaltending of
Nicole Hart. The sophomore goaltender surrendered just one goal in the first 17:30 of the half allowing the Cardinals to draw within one score, 11-10, on a free position goal from
Lindsey Shoales.
Cortland would however score the next three goals of the game before
Sierra Badger netted her third goal of the game to make it 14-12 with just less than three minutes to play. The Red Dragons added one more goal late to close out the scoring.
The opening half of the contest lived up to its billing as two of the nation's top scoring offenses combined to notch 17 first-half goals.
Samantha Barton scored Fisher's second goal as her initial shot rebounded back in mid-air and was slapped in for the tally.
Jordan Johnson scored less than a minute later to give Fisher a two-goal cushion, 3-1, at the 17:16 mark.
Two goals by Cortland including an extra-player goal tied it at 3-3, but Johnson blew past her defender and found nylon to put Fisher back in front, 4-3. The lead would be short-lived, however, as the Red Dragons answered with a fast break goal of their own just ten seconds later to knot the score at four goals apiece. Cortland then recorded back-to-back tallies in less than a minute to take its first lead of the game, 5-4, with 13:31 remaining in the opening half.
Fisher tied score at five on free position goal from Badger, but the Red Dragons fired back with four unanswered goals before a free position goal from Barton stopped the bleeding at 9-6. Hughes cut the deficit to two goals after beating the double team to find the back of the net for her 30th goal of the season.
Barton and Badger each finished with three goals apiece while
Erin Ward and Johnson added two tallies.
Caroline Trpcevski took the loss for Fisher in net while Hart made seven saves.
The Cardinals will travel to Houghton at 7 p.m. on Wednesday to take on the Highlanders before returning to Growney Stadium for three straight homes games to close out the 2014 regular season.