STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — The Marietta College women's lacrosse team scored early and often and defeated Franciscan University by the score of 22-6 Wednesday (Feb. 28) afternoon. The Pioneers improve to 3-0 on the season and Franciscan falls to 0-1 overall.
"We played great lacrosse today," Marietta head coach
Malory Nadrah said. "I credit Franciscan, they always have great fire power on attack and kept it away from us on the draw. Our defense stayed composed and had numerous stops that translated into great offensive possessions. The delta today was because of lights out play from our team."
Franciscan struck early as Carolyn Cooke scored off of the opening possession, but Marietta answered immediately with a score from
Mallory Wiles (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) one minute later. The Barons unbroke the tie at the 9:39 mark as Brooke Biagi snuck a shot past Pioneer goalkeeper
Abby May (Randolph, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary), taking a 2-1 advantage. The Pioneers answered again quickly as
Alayna Francis (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) won the ensuing draw control and found
Natalie Cocco (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) with a great pass. Cocco then deposited the ball in the net to tie the game at two. Marietta began to expand the lead for the remainder of the quarter as they scored another four unanswered goals. Cocco assisted
Renee Mulvaney (Midland, Mich./Midland) on a score and then Wiles added a trio of scores to the total and Marietta led 6-2 going into the second period.
The second quarter was packed with offense. The Pioneers won the opening draw control and scored seconds later as Wiles found the net again.
Sophi Merickel (Phoenix, Ariz./Cactus Shadows) got the Pioneers on the board yet again with a score three minutes later, assisted by Wiles. Franciscan finally slowed the momentum a bit as Joanna Hilkert cut the Pioneer lead to five, but Marietta countered with 8:22 remaining in the half as
Hope Adams (Delaware, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) got her first score of the game. Later in the period, Mulvaney and Adams scored again in rapid succession to give Marietta an 11-3 lead. Teresa Lyle scored on consecutive possessions for the Barons to slow down the rout, but Marietta closed out the half with scores from Adams, Cocco, and Wiles to take a 14-5 lead going into halftime.
The Barons got the first goal of the second half as Ashely Morisey scored, but Marietta poured on four more goals in the third period. Adams scored a goal, assisted by Mulvaney at the 11:20 mark and Cocco followed with a goal on the next possession. Adams and Wiles added to their totals later in the period and Marietta led 18-6 going into the final period. The Pioneers would tack on four more scores in the final period, goals from Mulvaney, Adams, Wiles, and
Jordan Jeffries (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Polytechnic), and cruised to a 22-6 victory.
May played three quarters in the net and had six saves, while giving up six goals.
Tessa Labrasciano (Brandon, Fla./Bloomingdale Senior) worked the final period and faced four shots and made three save.
Wiles led with eight goals in the match, which tied the Marietta College record for goals in game. She also added two assists which gave her 10 points in the game, breaking the single-game record for most points in a game. Adams finished with six goals and an assist. Mulvaney and Cocco finished with three goals apiece.
Marley Phillippe (Easton, Md./Easton) and
Sarah Imig (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) led the team with three draw controls apiece. Merickel led with four groundballs and
Maggie Downard (Canal Fulton, Ohio/Jackson) led with three caused turnovers on defense.
"Shoutouts to Abby, Tessa and Mal," concluded Coach Nadrah. "Abby was challenged today and rose to the occasion making some great stops. Tessa finished the game with her own great stops. So proud of Mal not only for the finishes on attack, but her hustle all over the field today."
Marietta next plays this Saturday (Mar. 2) as they travel to battle the College of Wooster with the game scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.
Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on
Facebook at facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on X and Instagram.
