PITTSBURGH — Defense and winning draw controls is what wins lacrosse games and that is exactly what the St. Joseph’s Hawks Women’s Lacrosse team did today. After the Duquesne Dukes started their season off strong by going 4-0 in their opening games against non-conference teams, now they cannot seem to find their rhythm against other A-10 competitors. Prior to their game against the Hawks, the Duquesne Dukes fell short to Virginia Commonwealth University, with a score of 21-16.
This afternoon, at Rooney Field, the St. Joe Hawks(6-4,2-0 A-10), played a fast-paced game from the first to final whistle, which gave them an easy win over the Duquesne Dukes (5-3, 0-2 A-10), with a final score of 21-6. The Hawks were led by Francesca Donato with a game-high 4 goals and 5 assists. In the opening four minutes, Junior midfielder, Bridget Cerciello put the Hawks on top by scoring her first goal of the half. After their first goal, St. Joe’s did not hold back their speed on offense or their pressure on defense. Cerciello had a hat trick in just the first, and she was not alone. Teammates Donato and Taylor Newman-Farr also had 3 goals a piece in the first half. At the end of the first half, St. Joe’s led 13-4 and also led with 11 assists. Duquesne had no assists in the first.
To start off the second half, St. Joe’s, won every draw control and scored three goals in under a minute, which sealed their win as they were now up 16-4. The goals came easily after they won the draw control to start the second. After Lauren Figura scored with just a little over 2 minutes played, it was rapid fire scoring for the Hawks. Then, Cerciello had her fourth goal of the game, which she won straight off the draw and scored unassisted. Seconds later, Newman-Farr scored her fourth goal of the game as well.
Duquesne and St. Joseph’s meet in the middle of the field for a draw.
Winning draw controls played a huge part in the Hawks win. They won a total of 21 draw controls, while Duquesne only won seven. In the second half, there were ten draw controls and St. Joe’s won 9-out of-10 of those. After the game, Hawks Head Coach, Alex Kahoe, said, “Draw controls in lacrosse are huge and its a possession to have the ball offensively and I think our team really stepped up together, had each others backs to come up with 21 draw controls today, which is great.”
The high pressure man-to-man defense style the Hawks played made it very difficult for Duquesne to score. Many of passes between the Dukes offense were unable to be completed to one another because of the Hawks high pressure. This man-man defense made it nearly impossible for the Dukes to get pass midfield with the ball. St. Joe’s defense only allowed Duquesne to take 21 shots for the whole game. On the other hand, Duquesne’s style of defense was backer-zone, but the Hawks could not be stopped and took 40 shots in total. There were many crisp and perfect passes that ended up in the back of the net. The precision of each pass and alertness each player equaled making goals look easy and flawless.
For the Dukes, Maddie Hart scored four of their six goals and Michaela Connolly had the only 2 assists of the game. 3-of-6 goals scored for Duquesne were scored off free position shots. In the second half, Duquesne did not score a goal until there was 8:06 remaining and then again with only a few seconds remaining until the end of the game.
Next up for the Duquesne Women’s Lacrosse team is an away and another A-10 match-up against University of Richmond on Friday. For the Hawks, their next game is a home game on Friday against Virginia Commonwealth University.
Stella's Blog 