Strong 1st Half Lifts Tigers Past Wilmington, 17-9

BOX SCORE


Philadelphia, Pa. - The Holy Family University scored 11 first half goals on its way to a 17-9 victory over visiting Wilmington University in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) contest Thursday afternoon at Tiger Field.
 
Holy Family improves to 8-5 overall and 5-2 in the CACC with the victory, while Wilmington falls to 2-11 overall and 2-5 in conference action. 
 
Junior Brigit LaRose (Lumberton, N.J./Holy Cross) exploded for a season-high five goals to lead the Holy Family offense.  LaRose also recorded three ground balls and caused two turnovers.  Senior Maria Mattioli (Huntingdon Valley, Pa./Nazareth) recorded a hat trick with three goals, while senior Stephanie McNesby (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan), sophomore Brianna Lancetta (Marlton, N.J./Bishop Eustace) and freshman Nicole Braungart (Medford, N.J./Bishop Eustace) added two scores each. 
 
Sophomore Sarah Kelly (Washington Twp., N.J./Washington Twp.) led the team with five ground balls, while senior Jessica Maloney (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) tallied three ground balls and caused a team-high three turnovers. 
 
For Wilmington, senior Jaclyn Hall recorded a hat trick to lead the Wildcats with three goals.  Graduate student Liz Case and sophomore Megan Keffer each scored a pair of goals to go along with an assist to finish with three points in the game. 
 
Sophomore Rebekah McCurry led Wilmington with three ground balls and caused a game-high four turnovers.  McCurry also scored a goal. 
 
Wilmington scored the game's first two goals to lead 2-0 early.  Hall scored the first goal of the game at the 20:35 mark and less than a minute later McCurry came through with her lone goal of the game.
 
However, Holy Family responded with back-to-back goals by Mattioli and McNesby to tie the game at 2-2 at the 16:45 mark.  Wilmington would go on to take the lead right back a few minutes later with a goal by Case to make the score 3-2 in favor of the Wildcats. 
 
The Tigers once again struck for back-to-back goals to regain the lead after LaRose scored her first goal of the game with 13:00 minutes to play in the half. 
 
Twenty-two seconds later, Keffer tied the game at 4-4 with her first goal of the game for the Wildcats.  With the score tied, LaRose tallied back-to-back scores in less than a minute span to jumpstart a 6-0 run by the Tigers.  LaRose gave the Tigers the lead for good with a free-position score at the 10:09 mark. Braungart capped the run by the Tigers with a goal with 5:15 to play until halftime to make the score 10-4. 
 
Wilmington ended its cold spell (3:38) after Case scored a man-up goal cutting the Tigers' lead to 10-5.
 
As the first half began winding down, LaRose scored the Tigers' 11th goal of the half with :12 seconds left as Holy Family took an 11-5 lead into halftime.
 
Holy Family outshot Wilmington by a 23-10 margin in the first half.  The Tigers finished the game with 37 shots, while the Wildcats attempted 17 shots. 
 
In the second half, Holy Family maintained control of the game as Wilmington came within six goals of the Tigers lead on two separate occasions in the half.  Each time the Tigers responded with two straight goals to halt the Wildcats attempt of a comeback.
 
Holy Family controlled the draws throughout the game (17-11) and held the advantage on ground balls by a 28-13 margin.
 
Freshman goalkeeper Grace Deckert (Jarrettsville, Md./Fallston) made six saves in net for the Tigers, while her counterpart, senior Kaitlyn Hall, made 11 stops. 
 
Holy Family is back in action on Sunday, April 14 as the Tigers travel to face Post University in a CACC contest.  Game time is slated for 1 p.m.

 
  - HFU -