DAN GEYER, STAFF WRITER
After falling to Little Three rival Niagara 13-5 in the season opener, the St. Bonaventure women’s lacrosse team looked to rebound in their home opener against Canisius on Feb. 15.
The Bonnies quickly fell behind 3-0 in the first two minutes, but after a timeout, they got hot, scoring three goals in a span of four minutes to even the score. Sophomore attacker Fiona McGovern put the Bonnies on the board with a free-position goal with 9:43 to go in the first period. It was McGovern’s first goal of the year.
“We called a timeout and we made the proper adjustment and we came out firing,” head coach LeighAnn Stauffer said. “ I think for the first time in a long time they believe they can hang with anybody.”
Just under three minutes later, junior attacker Abby Hiltz fed senior midfielder Nora Anderson a pass and buried her first goal of the season to cut the deficit to one goal. Just over a minute later, freshman attacker Grace Holleback tacked on her second goal of the year off an assist from freshman midfielder Brooke Piper.
From there, the remainder of the first quarter was a back and forth affair as junior midfielder/attacker Caroline Netti put the Golden Griffins back on top with her fourth goal of the season and second of the game. But sophomore attack Jessica Notaro evened the score at four with her first goal of the game and second of the season.
“[Notaro]’s a fighter and she’s a coach’s kid,” Stauffer said. She listens to everything we have to say and she buys into everything and it is starting to trickle up to everyone else, she’s a great kid, great listener and she is definitely the backbone of our attack right now.”
With just under 30 seconds in the first quarter, Hiltz gave the Bonnies their only lead off of Piper’s second assist.
The second quarter and most of the third quarter belonged to the Golden Griffins as they scored five consecutive goals to go up 9-5. But the Bonnies would not go away quietly as freshman midfielder Megan Schillinger netted her first goal of the game and second of the season from Hiltz. Three minutes later Notaro buried her second goal of the game and season, but the Bonnies got no closer as Canisius added four more goals as the Bonnies fell 13-9.
“We have to learn to finish out the game, play a full 60 minutes, but our defense played phenomenal. Offense fell short a bit.” Stauffer added.
Notaro led the Bonnies with three goals in the game, with Hiltz following behind with two goals and Schillinger, McGovern, Hollenbeck and Anderson each added a goal for the Bonnies, while senior goalkeeper Ashley Herrick stopped 11 shots.
While the Bonnies were narrowly outshot in the game, 28-23, they only allowed 15 shots on goal. They also committed 20 turnovers and were 16-17 on clears.
“We worked on our clears all week and got the ball up the field to our offense. We just have to work on finishing our shots and not having so many turnovers,” Stauffer added. “If we can cut that number in half, we’ll be just fine and we’ll be in the game Saturday
St. Bonaventure will travel to Arizona State on Saturday to take on the Sun Devils. Face off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
“We’re trying to instill in them that they can run with anybody and play with anybody. They play tough teams in the conference so this will be a great warmup for them.” said Stauffer.
geyerd18@bonaventure.edu
