Lacrosse Holds Off Saint Joseph's in Thrilling, 14-13 Win

Wednesday, February 22

Philadelphia, Pa.

3:00 p.m.

Temple University

3-1

Saint Joseph's

1-1

Temple

Saint Joseph's

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Lacrosse Holds Off Saint Joseph's in Thrilling, 14-13 Win

2.22.17 | Women's Lacrosse

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PHILADELPHIA - A rocky start turned into another exciting finish for Temple lacrosse, as the Owls escaped with a 14-13 win at city rival Saint Joseph's (1-1) on Wednesday afternoon. The Owls (3-1) got hat tricks from three players, led by senior Carly Demato with four goals.

Temple led 14-10 with 7:10 remaining in the game, but the Hawks nearly came all the way back with three goals to close out the contest. Freshman Kara Nakrasius controlled the crucial final draw for Temple with 45 seconds left, and the Owls were able to maintain possession until the final horn.

Seniors Morgan Glassford and Brenda McDermott each scored three goals apiece, while seniors Anna Frederick and Krissy Gallivan, along with junior Kira Gensler and freshman Olivia Thompson, all tallied one goal each. McDermott added two assists to her hat trick for a game-high five total points, and Glassford led the team in both ground balls (four) and draw controls (three).

Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Kelsea Hershey got the win with 51 minutes in the cage and a season-high eight saves for the Owls.

Temple found itself in a hole very early on, as the Hawks earned the first six draw controls and scored four goals in the first two and a half minutes.

Once the draw controls started coming for the Owls, Demato scored all four of her goals in a 6-0 run that put Temple up 6-4 with 17:09 remaining in the first half. McDermott broke up two pairs of Demato goals with one of her own, and assisted on Demato's first.

"We knew Saint Joe's was a really strong team and they returned a lot of top players," said Temple head coach Bonnie Rosen. "We definitely knew it would take a great effort today. When we went down early and couldn't get draw controls, it took a little digging in to figure things out. I'm thrilled we were able to get back in the game and start to take control."

The remainder of the first half was a back-and-forth affair, and the game was all tied up at 8-8 with 1:11 left before the break. Just four seconds before the end of the half, McDermott drove through traffic to score and put Temple up 9-8 at halftime.

Frederick scored early to set a good tone for the Owls in the second half, and Glassford gave Temple an 11-8 lead just over six minutes in.

Temple's largest lead of the game was four goals, which happened on two occasions down the stretch. The Owls were up 13-9 with 12:10 left, and had a 14-10 lead on their final goal, scored by McDermott with 7:10 to go.

The Hawks' comeback began with just over six minutes left in the game, and they completed a 3-0 run with 51 seconds on the clock but were unable to get the tying goal after Nakrasius earned the draw for the Owls. SJU got a game-high five goals from Rebecca Lane along with four from Hope Anhut and three by Nora McCallion.

"We had some outstanding play today," said Rosen. "Our goalkeepers really stepped up, and Kelsea did a nice job. We saw a lot of improvement, and early on we were really efficient on our possessions in terms of scoring. We just continued to button down the defense a little more to tighten the game up. They made another run at us and we gave up the ball a few times. We're still learning how to finish games once we have a lead, but I'm very happy with the game today."

Temple is back home for its next game, a 1 p.m. contest against Lafayette on Saturday, Feb. 25.

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