Cardinals Close Out Regular Season With Win Over Stevens; On to E8s
BOX SCORE
The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College women's lacrosse team closed out its 2014 regular season campaign on Sunday with a 14-8 win over Empire 8 opponent, Stevens Institute of Technology at Fisher's Growney Stadium. The win marks Fisher's fourth-straight victory as the Cardinals move to 13-4 overall and 6-1 in the conference standings. Stevens dips to 7-9 overall and 4-3 in the Empire 8.
Fisher has clinched the No. 2 seed and will take on Nazareth College in the Empire 8 Championships on Sunday in Ithaca. The Cardinals beat Nazareth earlier this season, 13-4, on the strength of four goals from
Samantha Barton.
The No. 18 Cardinals jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the game's opening minutes courtesy of back-to-back goals by
Lindsey Shoales and never looked back. The Ducks would get on the board just over one minute later to make it 2-1.
Both teams worked the ball around in the offensive zone, but were unable to score until Fisher broke a nearly 10-minute drought when
Sierra Badger scored to put Fisher up 3-1.
Stevens would answer the call, however, scoring its second goal of the game at 11:26 to cut Fisher's lead to one goal at 3-2.
Badger's second goal of the afternoon came on a free position opportunity at 9:03 and would be the first of three unanswered goals by the Cardinals, with Barton and
Taylor Hughes also chipping in with a goal each.
The Ducks closed out the half strong, scoring twice to narrow Fisher's lead to 6-4 as the horn sounded for halftime.
Fisher continued to control the pace in the second frame, scoring four of the half's first five goals to take a 10-5 lead with just over 17 minutes remaining in the game.
After exchanging goals to bring the count to 11-6, the Cardinals would put together two scoring runs, eventually overpowering the Ducks to a 14-8 win.
Seven different players recorded a goal for Fisher with Shoales leading the way with four tallies. Hughes scored three in the win and took a game-high 10 shots. Barton notched three points on a pair of goals and an assist to go along with two ground balls and four draw controls, while
Danielle Falck,
Erin Ward and
Jordan Johnson each netted one goal. Johnson also recorded three helpers.
Nicole Hart earned her fourth win of the season after making five saves in net.