Gulls Open Season with Wild 20-16 Win
March 13, 2007
BEVERLY, MA - Sara Gunter (Kennebunk, ME/Kennebunk) scored five goals and Valerie Feldman (Albany, NY/Guilderland) netted four goals to power the Gulls to a wild 20-16 win over Western New England College in the women's lacrosse season opener.
Endicott jumped out to an early lead scoring three goals in the opening minutes of the game. Sophomore middie and Quinnipiac University transfer Rebecca Bushnell (Guilford, CT/Guilford) scored on a feed from Alex Pearce (Underhill, VT/Kimball Union Academy) to give the Gulls a 1-0 lead. Emily Judd (Peabody, MA/Peabody) and Kristen Micho (Syracuse, NY/Westhill) both took advantage of the free position shot.
The Gulls breathing room quickly diminished as the Golden Bears answered with three goals of their own to tie the game. Michelle Thompson (Wilbraham, MA/Minnechaug Regional) got things started for WNEC when she took a pass from Rosalie Rodriguez (Norwalk, CT/Brien McMahon) and netting the Bears first goal.
Molly Moss (Yarmouth, ME/NYA) and Feldman continued the trend of Endicott taking advantage of free position shots pushing Endicott's led to two at 5-3.
The two sides continued to trade possession and momentum swings midway through the first half. The Gulls would outscore WNEC over the final minutes putting together a 7-2 scoring run sparked by a pair of goals from Sara Gunter (Kennebunk, ME/Kennebunk). Endicott took an 11-6 lead into half-time, using the bounce shot very effectively and taking full advantage of all its free position opportunities.
The Gulls stayed out in front during the second half scoring twice for every Golden Bear goal for the first 15-minutes of the frame. WNEC fought hard but the Gulls offense was relentless running their lead to as many as eight goals.
Despite an eight goal cushion EC could not put WNEC away. Just when it seemed like Endicott's lead would become too much the Golden Bears would put together a scoring run and close in on the lead. Western New England would cut the Gulls lead to four in the second half scoring five of the games last six goals and outscored the Endicott 10-9 in the second half.
Fortunately EC was able to hold on to the victory thanks to some stiff late game defense and back-breaking goals from Samantha Morin (Kennebunk, ME/Kennebunk) Pearce and Micho that slowed the Golden Bears momentum.
Endicott improves to 1-0 on the season and will head to Cambridge, MA to take on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Thursday evening at 5 p.m. The Gulls return home on Thursday March 22, 2007 when they play host to Wesleyan at 4:00 p.m.