Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/5/23
From Press Release
The Saint Joseph’s women’s lacrosse team used goals early and often to build a sizeable lead, fending off a late surge from #18 Princeton on Wednesday afternoon to secure a 19-17 win on Sweeney Field.
St. Joe’s tallied its fourth win in program history against a ranked team, for its third straight victory and a 7-6 record. The Tigers fall to 4-5.
Freshman Alexa Capozzoli – a Phillylacrosse.com Co-Player of the Year in 2022 – had a career-high four goals and two assists and Maddie Yoder (Springfield-Montco) had two goals for the Hawks.
The Tigers got five goals, one assists and five draw controls from McKenzie Blake (Haddonfield) and a goal and six draws from Ellie Mueller (Radnor)
HOW IT HAPPENED
The visitors opened the game with a quick three-goal burst, taking a 3-0 run over the first three minutes to give the Hawks some work to do.
The Crimson and Gray responded, goals from the midfield pair of Emma O’Neill and Bonnie Yu within a minute cutting the deficit to one.
After another Tiger goal, the Hawks once again added a pair of goals as freshman Alexa Capozzoli (Episcopal Academy) and sophomore Maddie Yoder (Springfield-Montco) leveled the tally headed into the media timeout.
On the other end of the timeout, the Hawks again found the netting as another rookie stepped up as Kate Fuhrman found the netting to give the Hawks their first lead.
O’Neill, coming fresh off of an Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Week performance, added her second of the quarter to give SJU a 6-4 lead after the first quarter.
The Hawks extended their scoring run to 6-0 on the other end of the period, starting the second with back-to-back goals from Yu and Capozzoli over the course of the first five minutes.
After Princeton finally grabbed a goal to cut the run, the Hawks responded right back with Fuhrman’s first goal of the afternoon. The Tigers answered to draw the lead back to 9-6 in favor of the Hawks.
Closing the first half with a flurry, the Hawks tallied three-unanswered goals to take a 12-6 lead into the break. Riley Evans got on the board, rewarding the midfielder with an excellent first half in the draw game. Fuhrman’s second goal of the game finished off a beautifully executed counter attack from coast-to-coast after the rookie found herself in an open pocket for an easy finish. Maggie Davidson closed out the scoring with a goal in the final 30 seconds to double up the Hawk advantage.
Just 90 seconds into the second half, the Hawks tallied two more goals to give an eight-goal lead against the Tigers. Yu recorded a hat trick before Yoder struck paydirt from a free-position opportunity.
As Princeton looked to use a 3-0 run to build momentum, O’Neill’s hat trick stifled the run to return the Hawks to a six-goal advantage. Fuhrman followed her teammate’s footsteps, finding the back of the net for the third time of her own to give SJU a 16-10 lead with 15 minutes remaining.
Capozzoli scored within the first two minutes of the period, becoming the fourth Hawk of the afternoon to record a hat trick as SJU went up 17-10.
After a career-high fourth goal from Capozzoli to put the Hawks up 18-11 with nine minutes remaining, the game looked all but over. But the Tigers stormed back, scoring five goals over a span of 2:53 to cut the deficit to 18-16 with two minutes remaining.
With the Hawks under pressure, a huge save from Jorden Concordia allowed the Hawk defense to breathe, running out the clock before Sydney Foster would make a cut and be found from Fuhrman before slinging an attempt past the Princeton goalkeeper, securing the Hawk victory.
Princeton added a late consolation goal with eight seconds remaining as the Hawks stormed the field at full time, defeating the #18 Tigers in a 19-17 showdown.
GAME NOTES
With the win, the Hawks recorded their fourth win in program history over a ranked team, all coming in the last three years under head coach Alex Kahoe.
Freshmen Alexa Capozzoli and Kate Fuhrman both spearheaded the attack with four goals apiece and two assists, combining for 12 points on the afternoon. Each recorded career-highs in goals and assists.
Emma O’Neill and Bonnie Yu also provided fireworks from midfield, joining the freshman with three goals apiece for four different Hawks collecting a hat trick. O’Neill added two assists to her day, now having scored 11 goals in her last three games.
Yu has now tallied 12 games in a row with a goal.
Maddie Yoder secured two goals of her own, freshmen providing 10 of the 19 goals scored.
Sydney Foster secured her first goal of the season.
Jorden Concordia recorded her fourth game with double-digit saves of the season, her 18 saves falling one shy of her career-best set earlier this season against Towson.