St. Joseph College (Conn.) Outlasts Women’s Lacrosse, 10-9
CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College senior goalkeeper Rachel Schrutt (Chicopee, Mass.) was stellar between the pipes notching 21 saves, but Erika Leitao (Newington, Conn.) scored four goals for St. Joseph College (Conn.) and the Blue Jays outlasted a furious rally by the Blazers to pull out a 10-9 win in Wednesday evening's non-conference women's lacrosse game at Leary Field.
With the loss, Elms falls to 0-10 on the season, while St. Joseph improves to 3-7 overall.
After Rachel Foster (Newington, Conn.) found Leitao in front of the net for her fourth tally of the game to set the score at 10-7 in favor of St. Joseph with 7:17 to play, Elms rallied with a pair of late goals from junior attacker Kaitlyn Harrington (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and freshman midfielder Elisha Godbout (South Hadley, Mass.) to narrow the gap to one at 10-9 with 1:50 to play in the contest.
From there, the Blue Jays were able to maintain possession and pull away to a hard-fought victory.
Leitao, who led all scorers in the game, found the back of the net three times, while Diana Soucier (Avon, Conn.) scored twice in the opening 30 minutes of play to help St. Joseph stake a 7-5 lead at intermission.
Freshman attacker Lauren Mazza (Agawam, Mass.) scored three goals of her own in the first period, while sophomore midfielder Kayla Narey (South Hadley, Mass.) and Harrington added a score each to lift the Blazers to their five markers of the first stanza.
A goal by Elms' senior attacker Emily Walsh (Hadley, Mass.) 4:18 into the second frame pulled the Blazers to within one at 7-6 before Foster and Narey traded scoring strikes to set the score at 8-7 with 16:40 to play.
Soucier's third goal of the game at the 13:25 mark extended the lead to 9-7 before Leitao's final goal gave the Blue Jays a 10-7 lead, setting up Elms' final comeback attempt.
St. Joseph held a 17-4 advantage in draw controls as Foster notched six and Soucier secured five draws.
Leitao also added a game-high seven groundball pickups while Schrutt topped that category for the Blazers with five.
Elms returns to conference action on Saturday, April 14 when it travels to Becker College for a 12:00 p.m. contest.
