[media-credit id=2200 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]The Quinnipiac women’s lacrosse team (1-2) defeated Saint Francis (0-2) 15-8 on Saturday afternoon at the Quinnipiac Lacrosse Stadium.

In the win, the Bobcats had four different players score. Sophomore midfielder Ashley Bobinski led the winning effort for Quinnipiac by tallying a career-high six goals and two assists.

Quinnipiac head coach Tanya Kotowicz stood outside the locker room while “Sweet Caroline” rang out from the Bobcat’s locker room after the game.

“I just asked [Bobinski] what she ate for breakfast this morning,” Kotowicz said. “[Bobinski] is obviously a dynamic player. She can feed the ball, share the ball, and then she can score, so she’s just an unbelievable player.”

Bobinski led the charge for the Bobcats as they came out of the gates strong and never looked back.

Quinnipiac’s two early goals scored by Bobinski were a show of her skill as they were both unassisted. Bobinski netted her first goal with a sprint from the left side of the net for a wrap-around shot that slipped past the unaware Saint Francis goalie. Bobinski’s next goal came after a slick spin move put her defender in the dust and she got a clear shot in front of the goal.

Though, between Bobinski’s breakout scores, Saint Francis had scored a goal by sophomore midfielder Livia Baker following a Bobcat penalty in front of the crease.

But it was the Bobcats who had the answer all game, and early on, they were not going to let the Red Flash get a chance to tie the game at two apiece.

This time freshman midfielder Avery Drouin had the hot hand as she scored two consecutive goals, one of which assisted by Bobinkski, to bring the Quinnipiac lead to 4-1.

At halftime, after Bobinski’s third and fourth goals, Quinnipiac had a comfortable lead on Saint Francis, 6-2 on 16 shots.

Ten minutes into the second half, the Red Flash made a surge in effort to back in the game. Saint Francis senior midfielder Jessica Mazzur’s had four of her five goals on the day in the second half.

The Red Flash run was spearheaded by Mazzur scoring three goals in three minutes to cut the lead down to 10-5, yet it was not enough to discourage the Bobcats.

Quinnipiac’s sophomore attacker Kayla Moreau responded to the Saint Francis offensive by scoring two critical goals down the stretch to stretch the lead back to 14-7 with less than nine minutes in play.

More importantly, Moreau was able to swing the pace of the game in the Bobcat’s favor throughout the second half as she set the Bobcat tone by going after loose balls, which she was able to draw fouls from on the Red Flash. Kotowicz credited the team’s win from play like Moreau’s.

[media-credit id=2200 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]“[Our play] was a little more gritty. We had to work on our hustle. It wasn’t Xs and Os, it was just who was hungrier,” Kotowicz stated.

After the final whistle blew, the Bobcats had weathered the Red Flash storm of Mazzur’s five goals on six shots, to get their first win of the season.

The fifteen goals on the day is a season-high for the Bobcats in the young season, but Kotowicz believes there is more to come.

“Look out. We are talented, there’s a lot of weapons on our team this year, and that’s the exciting part,” Kotowicz said. “We have no idea yet how we are going to use them, [but] we continue to work on a couple of different combinations.”
Quinnipiac (1-2) has Hartford (1-0) in its sights next week on Feb. 28 as it looks to build off of this win.