by The Padua Franciscan Bruin hosted the Laurel Gators in a lopsided affair. The Bruins caught fire early in the first quarter and never looked back, ultimately winning the contest 9-4.
Freshman Isabella Geffert started things off strong for the Bruins, scoring in just the first 27 seconds to give Padua an early lead. Padua was applying the pressure on the Gators early in the quarter. Senior Anna Kwiatkowski was able to come right back down for the Bruins to score a goal of her own, making the score 2-0 at just the 9:25 mark.
However, senior Jazmin Ross was able to get the Gators on the scoreboard to make the score 2-1. Both sides started the contest super-fast, and the first quarter was looking like a shootout. Senior Emma Takacs responded with a goal of her own, making the score 3-1 at just the 6:49 mark.
After a very fast-paced and high-scoring first quarter, both teams started to slow the game down late. Freshman Mariana Bryan would score yet another goal for Padua with just 36 seconds remaining in the first quarter to make the score 4-1. Not even 20 seconds later, senior Ava Schmidt scored yet another goal for the Bruins to make the score 5-1 and ended the quarter.
After a fast start for both sides, the second quarter slowed down. Padua was getting a bunch of shots late in the quarter but was having trouble converting. Junior Mackenzie Reid was able to stop the scoring drought for Laurel with a goal of her own, making the score 5-2 at the 6:11 mark.
Laurel was starting to pick up their intensity on the offensive end late into the second quarter. Meanwhile, the Bruins were still getting very good looks on goal but were still having trouble converting. Laurel was playing very aggressively on both offense and defense and was disrupting the Bruins. However, senior Ava Bonfili was able to get the Bruins back on track with a last-second goal to make the score 6-2.
After a slow second quarter for the Bruins, Padua came out playing super aggressively to start the third quarter. Geffert was able to score her second goal of the game to make the score 7-2 in favor of the Bruins at the 8:39 mark. This gained momentum for the Bruins as Takacs was able to score her second goal of the game to make the score 8-2.
Laurel started to play conservatively late into the third quarter, and it paid off, finding Reid scoring her second goal of the game to make the score 8-3 at the 2:49 mark. Laurel started to apply a lot of pressure late onto the Bruins. The Gators defense forced Padua to hold the lacrosse ball where they ultimately could not get a shot off and ended the quarter with the Bruins on top.
Kwiatkowski was able to start the fourth quarter off strong for the Bruins where she scored her second goal of the game just 57 seconds into the quarter. This made the score 9-3, but it was a slower-paced game from this point on. The game was very back and forth late, but the Gators were still fighting both offensively and defensively. The Gators’ defense was finally able to lead to some points, finding junior Danah Alrashid scoring a goal, making the score 9-4 to end the game.
The player of the game for the Padua Franciscan Bruins was senior Anna Kwiatkowski, with 2 goals, and the player of the game for the Laurel Gators was Mackenzie Reid, with 2 goals.
