The Florida Tech women’s lacrosse team dominated from start to finish on Monday, beating Alderson Broaddus (1-3) 24-3 at Florida Tech Panther Stadium.
“We really just wanted to hit the reset button with this game,” said Panthers assistant coach Taylor Marshall. “We’ve had a couple of really tough games with Limestone, Queens, Saint Anselm, so today was about resetting it and having fun.”
The goals were plentiful, led by Sara Grenier with five. She added an assist for a six-point night. Mary Gormley also earned six points with two goals and four assists. Lauren Tybor scored four times and assisted on another, giving her a five-point night, while Alexis Townsend scored four goals and Mollie Kaplan had a hat trick and an assist. Caroline Dunleavy chipped in with two goals, putting a cap on the long list of multi-goal scorers.
Sam Schiano, Aleah Fjelstad, Leah Dunn and Cristina Marani each scored one. For Marani, it was her first of the season.
The statistics were as lopsided as the score would indicate. with the Panthers getting off 41 shots (34 SOG) to six for the Battlers. Alderson Broaddus turned the ball over 31 times, to the Panthers 17and Florida Tech got 27 ground balls, while the Battlers had 12. Draw controls were 18-11 in favor of the home team.
Alderson Broaddus goaltenders Fallyn Gonzales and Emily Petrole each had a long night in the cage, playing one half each. Gonzales gave up 15 first-half goals, with Petrole giving up nine in the second half.
It was a short night for Panthers starter Stephanie Stuart, who allowed one goal and made one save, before giving way to Chloe Zador after playing 12:53. Zador finished with two saves in 47:07 of playing time.
Florida Tech (5-0) jumped out to a 5-0 lead, with Grenier getting two of those. It took six and a half minutes for the Battlers to even get into Florida Tech’s end of the field and took them 7:38 to find the back of the net, when Alex Shaffer cashed in a free-position shot, making it 5-1.
Grenier would score the next goal for Florida Tech, giving her the hat-trick 8:15 into the game. That kicked off a seven-goal run for the Panthers that made it 12-1. The last two goals of the run belonged to Townsend.
“We knew we had more depth and with us being ranked and them unranked we were anticipating being able to really push the tempo in the beginning,” said Marshall. “We got some goals early and started putting our bench in and they did a great job.”
In the midst of that seven-goal stampede, Tybor put home the Panthers 10th goal with 17:07 left in the half and that prompted Panthers coach Corinne Desrosiers to take Stuart out of the game, in favor of Zador. Townsend’s goal with 16:23 left made it 11-1 and that triggered the running clock.
“We haven’t been able to get her as much time as we wanted in the other games,” Marshall said of Zador. “Today she saw a fair amount of time and came up with some big saves. It can be tough when you have a sub defense line in because they don’t have as much chemistry, but she did do well.”
After Krista Cooper scored a man-up goal with 11:08 to go in the half to make it 12-2, Marani and Fjelstad scored the next two. After Brooke Dinehart made it 14-3, Dunleavy would score the final Panthers goal of the half, giving them a comfortable 15-3 lead at the break.
Even with their foot off the gas in the second half and clearing the bench throughout, the Panthers managed nine goals. Kaplan and Townsend had two each to lead the second half scoring.
Hunter Cairo did earn a red card 3:25 into the second half, which was the only negative thing the Panthers did all night.
For more info: Alderson Broaddus @ Florida Tech Box Score
Next up for the Panthers is a visit from Young Harris on Wednesday. The Mountain Lions will come in with an identical 5-1 record. The opening draw is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.