Box Score Huskies Host St. Joseph's on Wednesday at Memorial Field in Portland
(With contributions from Endicott College Sports Information)
BEVERLY, Mass. -- Paced by nine points from sophomore Emily Whitney (Rye, N.H.), the Endicott College Gulls defeated the visiting University of Southern Maine Huskies, 15-6, in a non-conference women's lacrosse match Saturday afternoon at Endicott Stadium.
Playing in their home opener, the Gulls evened their record at 1-1 on the season. The Huskies dropped their second straight road game to fall to 0-2.
Whitney scored seven goals and dished out two assists to lead the Gulls. Classmate Meghan Lennon (Canton, Mass.) added four goals and two assists for a six-point day, and had a game-high eight draw controls. Senior Emily Clayman (Beverly, Mass.) chipped in with two goals and an assist. Sophomore goalie Maura Grady (Marblehead, Mass./Pingree) recorded five saves and shared the team-lead with four ground balls.
Senior Julia Pearl (Essex Jct., Vt.) led the Huskies' offense scoring three times. Pearl also had a team-high four draw controls. Junior Anh Nguyen (South Portland, Maine) added a goal and an assist, and sophomore Lauren Lessard (Lewiston, Maine/Kents Hill) passed off two assists. Junior Caley Presby (Portland, Maine/Deering) made 10 saves in the Husky cage.
Whitney staked the Gulls to an early 2-0 lead before sophomore Sam Campobasso (Buxton, Maine/Bonny Eagle) tallied for the Huskies to cut the lead in half. The Gulls scored the next five goals over an 11-minute span to build a 7-1 advantage just past the midway point of the opening half. The Gulls got goals from Lennon, Clayman, two from Whitney and senior Kristen Thor (Longmeadow, Mass.) during the run.
The Huskies closed the gap to 9-4 by halftime as senior Nicole LaPlante (South Portland, Maine) scored once and Pearl found the net twice in the final ten minutes to offset scores by Clayman and Lennon.
Pearl's third goal in the opening minute of the second half sliced the Gulls' lead to four (9-5), and Nguyen's marker with 23:12 left to play again pulled the Huskies within four (10-6). But that would be as close as the Huskies would get as the Gulls outscored the visitors 5-0 over the final 23 minutes.
Endicott held a 33-14 edge in shots during the game. Endicott held a slight advantage in ground balls (22-20) and draw controls (12-11).
Southern Maine will host Saint Joseph's College on Wednesday (5:00 p.m.) at Memorial Field in Portland. Endicott is off until next Saturday (1:00 p.m.) when it travels to Wheaton College.
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