April 9, 2011

Box Score

GAINESVILLE, FL - Host Florida held on despite a second-half rally from Johns Hopkins as the sixth-ranked Gators beat the Blue Jays, 14-10, on a hot and sunny day at Dizney Stadium. The Blue Jays fall to 7-5 overall and 0-2 in the American Lacrosse Conference. The Gators, meanwhile win their 12th straight and improve to 12-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference.

Trailing by eight following a three-goal spurt from the Gators, the Blue Jays got four straight goals in a span of just over five minutes to make it a 13-9 game with 9:55 to play. But that would be as close as Hopkins could get in the closing minutes as the two teams traded goals in the final four minutes to account for the 14-10 final. Freshman Sarah Taylor got the run going with an unassisted goal at 15:13. Just 40 seconds later, freshman Sammy Cermack converted the Blue Jays only free position goal of the day, to cut the deficit to six. Junior Candace Rossi then took a pass from classmate Colleen McCaffrey and buried her shot to extend her point streak to 23 consecutive games. Rossi followed that with a helper on a Katie Duffey strike and the lead was down to four with nearly 10 minutes to play.

Mikey Meagher stepped up for the Gators over the next five minutes, saving three Blue Jay shots to keep her team on top by four. Kitty Cullen put Florida on top 14-9 and ended a scoreless drought of more than 11 minutes with her game-high fifth goal at 3:52. McCaffrey would get that one back with 58 seconds on the clock to account for the final score.

Cullen put Florida on top just 13 seconds and needed just over 10 minutes to notch a hat trick for the Gators as they pushed out to a 5-0 lead with 19:24 to play. Senior Brianna Cronin put the Blue Jays on the board at 17:03 with an unassisted strike. The Gators answered with three straight goals from Janine Hiller, Ashley Bruns and Caroline Chesterman to stake the home team to an 8-1 lead at 7:24. McCaffrey got a three-goal spurt going for the Blue Jays, scoring a pair of back-to-back goals in 90 seconds. Junior Rachel Ballatori capped the run with her only goal of the afternoon, to make it an 8-4 game.

But the Gators would get one back with just 16 seconds to play as Chesterman scored her second of the half and sent Florida into the half with a five-goal lead. Coming out of the half, Florida put together a 4-1 run with goals from four different scorers to take what seemed to be a comfortable 13-5 lead with just over 15 minutes to play. But Hopkins would make things interesting with that late four-goal run, thanks in part to five straight wins on the draw.

McCaffrey led the Blue Jays with four points on three goals and one assist as she now ranks 10th in school Division I history with 88 career goals. Rossi (1g, 1a) and freshman Taylor D'Amore (2a) also had multi-point games for Hopkins which won the draw control battle (16-10). Sophomore Cosette Larash finished with 10 saves in the goal, including eight in the first half. Cullen led five multi-point scorers for the Gators with five goals, while Chesterman also had a hat trick. Meagher had a big second half in the cage for Florida with 10 saves for a total of 13 in the game.

Hopkins returns to action on Wednesday, April 13 as the Blue Jays make the short trip to Catonsville, MD to take on the UMBC Retrievers. Opening draw is slated for 6:00 pm at UMBC Stadium.