ONEONTA, NY – A light snow began during warmups and grew heavier as the game continued on Wednesday evening, and the Bard College Raptors similarly pulled away from the Hartwick women's lacrosse team midway through the second half, eventually securing a 15-10 victory. The win brings Bard to 2-0 on the year, while the Hawks are now 1-1.
Emily Schaub (Brewster, NY/Brewster) scored the game's first goal under three minutes in off a Rachel Hedden (Burlington, CT/Central Conn. State) pass, although Bard's Gillian Adkins, Rachel Yoder, and Melissa Rosenthal each got their fourth goal of the season via unassisted tallies for the next three goals. Alexa Matarazzo (Commack, NY/Commack) charged from the left side of the net to the front on a free-position shot to cut the Hartwick deficit to one at 21:08, but Madison Brown (from Rosenthal) and Yoder (free-position) bumped the Raptors advantage up to 5-2 with 16:29 to go.
Undeterred, the Hawks scored three times in four minutes to knot the score up. GinaMarie Wilson (East Meadow, NY/East Meadow) put together a gorgeous individual effort for the first, coming out from the left side of the goal, spinning, and finishing. Goalkeeper Jennifer Paszko (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) made a big free-position save before Amy Tracy (Smithtown, NY/Florida Southern College) picked up a broken pass and sent a ball top shelf for the second of those three goals, and Alexa Matarazzo (Commack, NY/Commack) sent a beautiful pass to Cassie Durkin (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville Dewitt) to make the game 5-5 at 13:05. The Raptors came right back, however, and went on a 3-0 run of their own thanks to consecutive free-position goals from Caleigh DeCaprio and Rosenthal and another rifle from Rosenthal at 9:47. There was just one goal for the rest of the period (thanks in part to another Paszko free-position save), coming on a Hedden woman-up free-position shot with 1:25 to go. At the break, 'Wick trailed 8-6.
The two teams alternated scoring the first five goals of the second half. A Wilson free-position goal got the Hawks to within one at 27:17, while Brown returned the favor at 25:37 by cutting to the front of the net to put home a pass by DeCaprio. It took until 19:28 for Jennifer Darasz (Gorham, ME/Gorham) to score the next goal after she caused a turnover, but just 100 more seconds for Yoder to earn a free-position shot and go top shelf. The fifth goal of the second half, making the score 10-9, was Wilson's team-high sixth of the year, coming on a free-position shot at 17:47.
Rosenthal got her fourth of the game on a great individual effort 41 seconds later, triggering a run of five straight Bard tallies. Yoder got the next two goals, followed by Brown (from DeCaprio) and one more from Rosenthal at 5:22 to make it 15-9 and essentially put the game away. Durkin scored the game's final goal at 3;33 off a pass from Wilson who was behind the net, bringing the score to its final state.
Wilson followed up her season-opening hat trick with another one, also registering an assist, two draw controls, and two ground balls. Hedden (one goal, one assist), Durkin (two goals), and Matarazzo (one goal, one assist) all had two points apiece; Hedden also had two draw controls, a caused turnover, and a ground ball, and Durkin had two draw controls. Darasz's three caused turnovers led the Hawks, and she also had a goal and two ground balls. Paszko made six saves on 14 shots in the first half, while Ashley Jablonowski (Levittown, NY/Island Trees) made seven saves on 14 shots in the second.
Rosenthal and Yoder were the two stars for the Raptors, who had just five total point-scorers on the night. Rosenthal had five goals on 11 shots and two assists, as well as four ground balls and three draw controls. Yoder also had five goals (on seven shots), a game-high nine draw controls, two caused turnovers, and a ground ball. DeCaprio picked up a goal and dished out three assists to go with three ground balls, while Brown had a hat trick on five shots, three ground balls, and a draw control. The final Bard point-scorer was Adkins who had one goal, six draw controls, and a game-high five ground balls. Roxanne Rouskas earned the win by playing the first 30 minutes in net and making one save while allowing six goals. Izabel Kickner came in for the second half and made four saves on eight shots.
As a team, Bard outshot the Hawks 31-17, as well as 28-15 on goal. They also narrowly won the turnover battle, 24 to 27, and had a clear rate of 12-of-19 compared to the host's 17-of-28. The Raptors picked up 26 ground balls to 'Wick's 19, and destroyed the Hawks off the draw, winning 20 draw controls to seven.
The Hawks go on the road next time out to play another Hawks side, taking on New Paltz this Saturday, March 7 at 12 p.m.
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