Yuko's Six Goals Lead Lacrosse to 18-5 BIG EAST Win at Butler

Saturday, April 14

Indianapolis, Ind.

10:00 a.m.

Temple University

8-6, 3-3BIG EAST

Butler

1-13, 0-6BIG EAST

Temple

Butler

Photo by: Zamani Feelings

Yuko's Six Goals Lead Lacrosse to 18-5 BIG EAST Win at Butler

4.14.18 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Senior Toni Yuko scored a career-high six goals and two others also recorded hat tricks for Temple lacrosse in a runaway, 18-5 win at Butler (1-13, 0-6) in BIG EAST action on Saturday. The Owls (8-6, 3-3) scored 10 straight goals to open the second half and put the game away.

Keys to the Game
> Temple completely dominated offensively with 32 shots on goal compared to eight for Butler. The Owls also doubled up the Bulldogs with a 16-8 advantage in draw controls, and committed just 11 turnovers to Butler's 25.
> After leading 8-4 at halftime, Temple scored 10 straight goals in the second half, allowing just a single Bulldog goal in the final seconds of the contest.
> Temple's 18 goals tied their season high, achieved in two other wins earlier in the season.

Individual Highlights
> Yuko completed a hat trick just over midway through the first half, and went on to lead all players with a career-high six goals.
> Also tallying hat tricks for Temple were sophomore Meghan Hoffman and freshman Bridget Whitaker. Both scored a career-high three goals.
> Senior Nicole Latgis tied her career high with eight draw controls while also tallying four ground balls and three caused turrnovers.
> Hoffman, senior Kira Gensler and junior Amber Lambeth all recorded two assists each. Gensler also led Temple with five ground balls.
> Freshmen Jen Rodzewich and Jackie Cerchio notched a goal and an assist each, while sophomore Michelle Koscinski scored twice and sophomores Olivia Thompson and Maddie Gebert both scored once for the Owls.

First Half
> The opening half was back and forth to start, and the Owls trailed 3-2 until rattling off four straight goals including the second and third for Yuko, who completed the hat trick with 12:27 remaining.
> Butler scored with 24 seconds left, but Lambeth fed Cerchio for a goal with just four seconds remaining after a Latgis draw control, giving Temple an 8-4 lead at the break.

Second Half
> The Owls dominated from the get-go, with Yuko scoring just 41 seconds in to start a 10-0 run.
> Hoffman scored all three of her goals in the second half, as did Whitaker who scored goals nine and 10 in the run.
> The Bulldogs' only goal came with 15 seconds remaining.

Quotable
> "This was the kind of game and performance we needed. I was happy for us to establish some momentum and put a team away. We're in the home stretch and every game matters, and this was a good mental boost for the team."

> "In particular, Toni Yuko did a really nice job today of taking her opportunities and finishing them. We accomplished our goal of taking more shots and we needed to do better and putting some of those away, but Toni was able to do that."

> "A lot of the things we worked on this week showed up on the field. We did a nice job with our body positioning and closing space through the midfield without fouling, leading to a lot of caused turnovers. That was key to establishing momentum against a young team like Butler."

- Temple head coach Bonnie Rosen

Next Up
> Temple returns home to host Vanderbilt at noon on Wednesday, April 18.