The Canisius women's lacrosse team won it's eighth straight game and sixth game in MAAC play this afternoon as the team defeated the Fairfield Stags, 11-10 at Rafferty Stadium. The victory moves the Blue and Gold to 9-5 on the season and a perfect 6-0 in conference play, while the loss drops the Stags to 9-4 and 4-1 in the MAAC. 

The Golden Griffins were led by freshman Erica Evans who scored five goals for the Blue and Gold on nine shots. Along with Evans, junior Taylor Giglio had three goals on six shots and senior Tori Quinn had a team leading three assits. 

"Today was a great 60 minute effort all around," said head coach Scott Teeter. "Our team played extremely well overall and our offense really hit their stride in the beginning of the second half to give us the lead."

Canisius went into the locker room at the half with just a one goal lead over the Stags, but the Griffs came out strong in the second half, really clicking offensively scoring five straight goals to take a 10-5 lead with 23 minutes left in regulation. 

The Stags would fight back, scoring three straight goals over a 12 minute span to cut the Canisius lead down to 10-8 with just over 12 minutes left in regulation. But the Griffs countered the offensive attack by the Stags as the freshman Evans scored her fifth goal of the game to ultimately clinch the victory.

"Down the stretch our defense and the leadership of Kayla Scully really shut the door and didn't allow them to get another chance to tie the game. We made two huge defensive stops in the final two minutes and that really helped us seal the victory," said Teeter. 

Scully got the start in goal for the Griffs and the senior goalkeeper made the most of her opportunity, making eight saves and recording her fifth victory of the season. 

As a team, the Griffs had 25 shots compared to the Stags 24, 12 draw controls to the opposition's 11 and had six free position shots to the Stags four. Fairfield also recorded 14 ground balls to the Griffs 10 and had four less turnovers than Canisius.

The next game for Canisius will be on Wednesday, April 15 when the Blue and Gold will look to continue their hot streak against Battle of the Bridge rival Niagara University on Senior Night at the Demske Sports Complex.

Game Notes: Five different Griffs scored in the game today as Evans (5), Giglio (3) and Ashley Bull, Meghan Cuddy and Tori Greco each found the back of the net at least once...the five goals by Evans in the game was a season-high for the freshman...the victory over the Stags improves Canisius to a 5-3 record over Fairfield over the last four seasons...head coach Scott Teeter is now 6-0 as a head coach after the birth of his daughter.