WESTFIELD, Mass. – Natalie DeMaio scored six goals to lead Westfield State University to a 20-13 win over Framingham State in a showdown of the top two teams in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference at Alumni Field on Saturday night.
Westfield improves to 10-6, 4-1 in the MASCAC, while Framingham dips to 7-7, 4-1 in the league.
The Owls started the game scoring the first four goals including three from Emma Cretella.
The Rams got on the board on a goal by Madison Skiff with six minutes on the clock, but the Owls' Cassidy Connolly tallied the final two markers of the frame to give Westfield a 6-1 lead after one quarter.
Westfield took a 10-4 lead into the half after a roughly played first half that featured 17 fouls on Framingham, and 10 on the Owls, and a five-plus minute delay while game officials reviewed a rule on a penalty box release on a Westfield State man-up goal.
The Owls pushed the lead to eight in the third quarter on a pair of occasions, spreading out the offense to open up passing lanes, with eight of the 10 Owls goals in the second half recording assists.
A Cassidy Harvey tally with just over two minutes to play in the third quarter gave Westfield and eight point lead, but Hanna Guerin added a man up goal for the Rams in the closing minutes and they trailed 14-7 after three.
In the fourth, Westfield received a tally in the opening minute from DeMaio, but the Rams responded with three straight cutting the deficit to 15-10 with just over 10 on the clock. Guerin scored first off of a feed from Rachel Erickson. Leah Green scored unassisted, and Guerin found the back of the net solo to cap the run.
The Owls countered with four straight from four different players pushing the lead to nine, 19-10, with just under eight to play.
The Owls added a final tally on a free position shot from DeMaio with 1:04 on the clock to reach the final margin.
DeMaio finished the game with six goals for the Owls, while Connolly tallied five and assisted on one.
Cretella collected four goals and three assists, while Harvey finished with three goals and a helper.
Westfield State first-year goalkeeper Sydney Smith came up big for the Owls with seven saves in three quarters of action between the pipes, coming in in relief of starter Kara Banagan who left with an apparent lower leg injury after going down on the final play of the first quarter.
Alexis Burleigh took the loss in net for the Rams and made 11 saves.
Westfield State held a 39-29 edge in shots for the game and slim 17-15 edge in ground balls.
The two schools have met in the last three MASCAC women's lacrosse conference tournament championship games. The win tonight gives Westfield sole possession of first place in the league and puts the Owls in the driver's seat in controlling their destiny in the race for the top seed and home field advantage in the 2022 conference tournament.
Westfield State recognized its two 2022 seniors, Kelly Gearing and Victoria Paras in a pre-game ceremony. Both have been key offensive players for the past four years.
Westfield will be back in action on Tuesday evening hosting Worcester State at 7:00 p.m.
Framingham will next host Mass Maritime on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.