March 28, 2009
Box Score
EASTON, Pa. - The Leopards' second-half offensive surge nearly gave them their first Patriot League victory, but time ran out as the women's lacrosse team fell one-goal short to American, 12-11. Lafayette outscored the Eagles by a 7-4 margin in the final period to nearly come back from what had been a four-goal halftime deficit.
With the score 12-11 in favor of American with less than two minutes to play, Lafayette's Erin Steel had a chance to tie the game at 12 and possibly force overtime, but her shot hit off the post. The Eagles regained possession of the ball with one minute to play and ran time off the clock to keep the Leopards from recording their first league victory of the season.
The Leopards (0-11, 0-4) were led by Kristin Ruminski's three scores. Three other players -- Lauren Brown, Michaela Corn and Maria Drehwing -- all chipped in two goals apiece and the Leopards edged American 32-26 in shots. Lafayette took more than half of its shots (18) in the second period and limited the Eagles (2-8, 1-3) to only four second-half scores.
Goalie Emily Bjork entered the game six minutes into the first half and finished with six saves, five of which came in the second half.
Lafayette seemed to be in for a long game when American scored five straight goals in after less than 10 minutes of action, the first two of which came from Amanda Makoid, who led the Eagles with three goals on the afternoon.
Back-to-back goals from the Leopards' Julia Bateman and Ruminski in less than a minute quickly closed that gap to three. The Eagles responded with two more goals but the Leopards scored two of the half's final three goals to make it an 8-4 at the midway point and keep the lead within reach.
After American scored the second half's first goal at 27:44, the Leopards rattled off three goals from three different players to put themselves right back in the mix at 9-7. American's Bernadette Maher and Anne Marie Person upped the lead back to four (11-7), however, with 18:36 remaining.
Ruminski netted her second goal at 17:49 and after another American goal, the score stood at 12-8 with 17 minutes on the clock, leaving Lafayette plenty of time to attempt a comeback.
The Leopards nearly did just that, closing out the game with three unanswered goals, including Drehwing's score at 2:40 that made it a one-goal contest, the closest the Leopards had been all afternoon. Unfortunately Steel's shot hit the post and that marked the final chance Lafayette had to tie the game as the clock wound down.
Lafayette has the week off before traveling to Colgate next Saturday for a 1 p.m. game.
