HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The Juniata women's lacrosse team scored the first 11 goals of the game as they cruised to an 18-5 victory over DeSales Saturday afternoon at Gibbel stadium to improve to 2-0 on the year.
It was a banner day for Peyton Goodrich as she led all scorers with a career-high seven goals. She added a ground ball, six draw controls, and a caused turnover. Goodrich was supremely efficient shooting the ball, taking seven shots to score her seven goals. Grace Gibbs tallied five goals, three assists, four ground balls, three draw controls, and four caused turnovers. Kyndall Yeager added two goals, and two assists, while Shayla Lapp amassed a goal, an assist, and six draw controls. Shannon Para and Kelliann Drummond added a goal apiece, while Skyler Stevens contributed two assists. Maeve Kuser was a menace in defense as she totaled six caused turnovers, and Tess Ledeboer tacked on three caused turnovers of her own. Chloe Gerhard made five saves as she earned the win in net for the Eagles.
The first quarter featured an offensive onslaught from the Eagles as they found the back of the net twice in the first four minutes, the first on a Goodrich unassisted goal that saw her beat her defender from the top of the arc and fire past the keeper. On the second, Yeager found Goodrich cutting across goal; she caught the ball with her back to goal, turned, and ripped it into the top of the net. Gibbs and Goodrich scored 14 seconds apart to double the lead, Lapp assisted on Drummond's goal, and the Yeager to Goodrich connection struck again to push the JC lead to six. Gibbs and Lapp would score one more each, with Lapp's coming via free position shot. Goodrich made the Bulldogs pay when JC was a woman up, with Gibbs assisting a pair of Goodrich goals as the Eagles led 10-0 after one.
Gibbs opened the second with a free position goal a minute and half in, and the Juniata offense cooled off for a bit as neither team scored for six minutes. The Bulldogs countered with two straight goals before Stevens found Yeager for the final goal of the half, as Juniata led 12-2 at the break.
The Bulldogs scored two goals in the first minute and 20 seconds of the second half to get within eight as they tried to make it a game.
Juniata would score the following six goals, three in the third and three in the fourth quarter, with Goodrich's seventh goal off a Stevens assist pushing Juniata ahead by 14, 18-4, with just over three minutes to go in the game. The Bulldogs scored in the final minute to complete the score line.
Juniata returns to action this Wednesday at home when they will host 0-1 Lycoming Wednesday at 4:00.
