Freshman Tessa Chad guided the Canisius women's lacrosse team to their first win of the young season, scoring a team-high four goals, in a 12-7 victory over Binghamton University this afternoon from the Demske Sports Complex.
“Anytime you get a win it's huge,” said head coach Scott Teeter. “There were elements out there that we had to battle through. It was colder, we couldn't hold on to the ball early on, but we got a lead, finished some shots, and I thought the team did a very good job battling all the way through.”
Chad, who also added three draw controls to her stat sheet, played an important role in keeping the offense going throughout the game.
“Tessa is a big part of our offense right now,” said Teeter. “When certain players aren't in our lineup its easy to key on Erica Evans. When they try to shut down Erica it's good to see other players step up like Tessa. Tessa has a cannon for a shot and she took advantage of her opportunity.”
Also scoring for the Griffs were sophomore Allie Stewart, who scored three times, junior Taylor Giglio, who found the back of the net twice, while Evans, sophomore Claire Bollin and freshman Brenna Shanahan each scored a goal.
“I thought Allie Stewart made the most of her opportunities tonight,” Teeter said. “Taylor Giglio scored a big goal down the stretch to help us close out the game.”
After an early goal from Binghamton's Rebecca Golderman to open the scoring, the Griffs went on a 5-0 run throughout the first half. The team looked poised to carry a healthy lead into the half, but two late Bearcat goals gave the Griffs a 5-3 halftime lead.
Evans, who had a quite game overall, opened the scoring in the second half to extend the Golden Griffin lead.
“Erica is going to draw a lot of attention with face guards, but she had a goal and an assist in transition. She did a lot of the little things for us tonight, played great defense, battled through some draw controls, and got some ground balls.
At the same time, if you try to shut her down we have other weapons that can step up and I thought our 6 v. 6 game was pretty good against the zone they were running.”
The Bearcats then went on a 3-1 scoring run to close the gap at 7-6 with 16:59 left to play in the game.
From there on out the Griffs took control, going on a 5-1 run down the stretch to secure the victory for the Blue and Gold.
With the win, the Golden Griffins move to 1-1 on the year and will travel to Newark, Del. this Saturday, as they take on the University of Delaware at noon.
Game Notes:
With the victory the Griffs move to 11-2 lifetime against Binghamton… Both Shanahan and Bollin recorded their first career goals in the game… Stewart's three-goal performance was a career high, beating her mark set during last weekend's game at Michigan… Chad also recorded her career high in goals and now has six through her first two games with the Griffs… With the loss the Bearcats move to 0-3 on the road this season… The Griffs move to 1-0 at home in 2016, after going 7-2 at home a year ago.
