McDermott Sparks Huge Comeback for Lacrosse in 11-9 Win at Cincinnati

Wednesday, April 5

Cincinnati, Ohio

12:00 p.m.

Temple University

10-2, 3-1BIG EAST

Cincinnati

5-7, 1-3BIG EAST

Temple

Cincinnati

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

McDermott Sparks Huge Comeback for Lacrosse in 11-9 Win at Cincinnati

4.5.17 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

CINCINNATI - In improbable fashion, Temple lacrosse secured its best start in 20 years by winning 11-9 at Cincinnati (5-7, 1-3) to improve to 10-2 overall. The Owls, now 3-1 in the BIG EAST, trailed by four goals before closing out the game on a 6-0 run. Brenda McDermott had a hat trick of three goals along with two assists to lead the Owls, scoring all three in the final run including the game-tying goal.

"What else is new?" said Temple head coach Bonnie Rosen about the late-game play of her senior attacker, who has now recorded three hat tricks in a row. "When the time is ticking away and things matter, Brenda finds another level to her game. Now, if we could play the whole game like we play in the last five minutes, some of these games could be a little less stressful, but I give credit to Cincinnati for being ready for us."

Carly Demato scored the game-winner with 1:33 remaining, and Anna Frederick gave the Owls an insurance goal with 49 seconds left. Both Demato and Frederick tallied two goals in the win.

Reigning BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week Maryn Lowell made eight stops in the cage for Temple, also recording two ground balls and a crucial caused turnover late in the game. Nicole Latgis played a critical role for Temple on defense as well, marking the Bearcats' top player and tallying game-highs of six ground balls and four caused turnovers.

"Nicole was assigned to mark No. 9 (Monica Borzillo)," said Rosen, "and did such a nice job with that. She really made her a non-factor which was key to allowing us a chance to win down the stretch." Borzillo leads the Bearcats with 32 goals and a BIG EAST-best 31 assists for a league-best 63 total points, but tallied just a single assist for one point against the Owls.

Much of the game was an uncharacteristically sloppy one for Temple, who committed 21 turnovers, its second-highest total of the season.

"This was one of those games we were having a hard time handling the ball," said Rosen, "and the physicality of the game got to us. We made a lot of errors and we had to figure out how to weather the storm, keep to our game plan and do the little things. It was a challenging game.

"Cincinnati was definitely ready for us and excited to play. They came out aggressively and their goalkeeper made some big stops early in the game to set things up for them. We're really fortunate to have escaped with the win, but we did keep our heads down and plugged away until the opportunity presented itself to get back into the game."

Nearly eight minutes passed before either team scored to start the contest, and it was the Bearcats on the board first at 22:11. It was almost six minutes later before Kira Gensler scored off the bench for Temple, a play Rosen signaled out after the game.

"Kira's goal was a huge spark for us," she said. "Today we looked to our bench to help create some momentum, and I was really happy that we could count on those players for that."

The first half saw three ties, and only a brief lead for Temple on Demato's first goal with 6:21 left. Cincinnati made it 3-3 with 4:59 to go, and took a 4-3 lead 10 seconds later which stood through halftime.

Morgan Glassford scored on a McDermott assist after just one minute of play in the second half, but from there it was nearly all Cincinnati for the next 22 minutes. After a Temple timeout, down 6-4 at 23:59, an apparent McDermott free-position goal was called back after the stick check. The Bearcats proceeded to score twice more, taking an 8-4 lead on Elaina Enich's fourth goal with 12:49 left.

The Owls cut the margin to three on a Meghan Hoffman goal at 9:13 before Cincinnati scored its final goal at 8:31 on a free-position chance.

McDermott got Temple's run started with 7:47 left, converting on a free-position opportunity, and Frederick cut the deficit to 9-7 with her own free-position goal at 5:06. McDermott then scored back-to-back goals in a 30-second stretch, tying the game with 3:32 left before Demato's game-winner at 1:33 and Frederick's insurance goal in the final minute.

Temple will return home for its next two games, starting with a 1 p.m. BIG EAST contest against city rival Villanova on Saturday, April 8.