WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Westfield State women's lacrosse team used a ten-goal first quarter to roll past Keene State, 19-3, on a Wednesday night from Alumni Field in Westfield, Mass. The Owls move to 4-0 in the month of April and advance their overall record to 7-5. Keene State drops to 2-8 with the loss.
The Owls had seven different players score a goal in the first quarter including a pair of goals from juniors Cassidy Connolly (Woburn, Mass.) and Cassidy Harvey (Niskayuna, N.Y.), along with sophomore Lindsey Bohenko (Lowell, Mass.).
Connolly opened up the scoring in the second quarter to tally her third goal of the night and sophomore Natalie DeMaio (Westwood, Mass.) netted her second of the night just before time expired in the half to put Westfield comfortably ahead 14-2.
Keene State recorded first-half goals by junior Mindy St. Marie (St. Albans, Vt.) and junior Halie Ratajack (Brewster, N.Y.).
Westfield State scored five of six second-half goals in the contest with DeMaio burying the first two in a span of four minutes to give her four goals on the night. Ratajack deposited her second goal and third of the of the game for Keene to begin the scoring in the fourth quarter. Connolly recorded her fourth goal of the evening to wrap up the game, scoring the Owls season-high 19th goal of the game with 2:30 left.
Bohenko registered her first three goals of the season with the hat trick, while Harvey and first-year Hannah Collins (Niskayuna, N.Y.) each tallied twice for Westfield. Owls leading scorer on the year Emma Cretella (Cheshire, Conn.) scored the second goal of the night as the junior midfielder has now scored at least one goal in ten of eleven games played this season. Megan Bailey (Quincy, Mass.), Victoria Paine (Dudley, Mass.), and Caitlin Curran (Ashland, Mass.) rounded up the scoring with one goal each.
First-year Sydney Smith (Dalton, Mass.) got the start in net for the Owls, picking up her fourth win of the season while making four saves. Kara Banagan (Niskayuna, N.Y.) split time with Smith, starting in net in the second and fourth quarter. Keene State goalkeeper Haley Terva (Granby, Conn.) took the loss for KSC, stopping four shots on net.
Westfield State will enter into conference play for the remainder of the season, starting on Friday as the Owls host Fitchburg State from Alumni Field in Westfield, Mass. with a start time of 7:00 P.M. Keene State will return to Little East Conference play on Saturday as they host Western Connecticut for a 1:00 P.M. start.