March 9, 2008

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle lacrosse team was dealt its fifth-straight loss on Sunday afternoon, a 15-13 defeat at the hands of Louisville. Emily Bonczek led the Explorers with six goals, while Stefany McKee added five.

Louisville's Shayna Stearns opened up the scoring early on, netting a goal off of an assist from Sammy Allen at the 29:05 mark. McKee evened the score at 1-1 with her goal at 26:22, before the Cardinals reeled off four-straight to take a commanding 5-1 lead.

The Explorers bounced back, as McKee tallied a pair to cut the deficit to two goals. Bonczek recorded her first score of the game at the 6:10 mark, but two Cardinal goals stretched the lead to 7-4.

After a relatively quiet first half, Bonzcek then carried the Explorer offense on her back, finding the back of the cage with just under a minute left to make it a 7-5 game. She later beat the Cardinal defense for a score with just six seconds to play in the half, as the Blue and Gold headed into the intermission down by one.

Bonzcek opened up the second half much like she ended the first, beating Cardinal goalkeeper Jen Heup for a score just 30 seconds in. She then gave the Explorers their first lead of the afternoon with a free position goal at the 24:41 mark, making it 8-7 in favor of the home team.

The lead wouldn't last long, as Lianne Bobel tied the score at 8-8 less than a minute later. Unfortunately for the Explorers, who had held the Cardinals scoreless for the prior 8:47, that goal woke up the Louisville offense. The Cards then scored four-straight goals to take a 12-8 advantage, matching their largest lead of the game.

Back-to-back goals from McKee and Bonczek cut the deficit in half with 14:06 to play. After a Louisville goal, Allie Venuti scored on a free position shot to make the score 13-11 in favor of the Cards with 9:46 left.

Louisville then put the game out of reach, as goals from Bergan Foley and Bobal extended the lead back to four goals. The Cardinals effectively ran the clock in the final five minutes of play, as the Explorers were unable to force a turnover until there were under 20 seconds on the clock.

Bonczek and McKee added late goals for La Salle (0-5).

Ellen Axelsen played all 60 minutes in goal for the Explorers, recorded a game-high 16 saves.

Louisville was led by Foley, Bobal and Emily Dashiell, who all scored three goals. Heup stopped six shots en route to recording the win for the Cards (4-1).

La Salle will return to action this Friday when they head to New York to take on Columbia.