Women’s lacrosse battled to a hard-fought 10-9 win over Drexel on Saturday at Rafferty Stadium, improving the Stags’ season record to 4-1.
In an extremely physical game where 11 yellow cards were shown, nine of them coming in the first half, both teams had to overcome frustration and capitalize on player up advantages.
The Stags set the attacking tone from the start, racing to a 4-0 lead within 11 minutes. The Drexel Dragons were quick to cut this advantage down, with Drexel senior Kate Quinn giving the Dragons their first goal on the board, and starting their own four-goal unanswered run.
With scores even at 5-5 heading into the second half, it was Fairfield graduate Kyleigh Tufano who reinforced Fairfield’s attacking intentions to put the Stags up 6-5 with a goal in the second minute of the third quarter. It took less than a minute for Drexel to answer the deficit, leveling the game to 6-6. The Stags outscored Drexel 3-2 in the third quarter, which is the first time Fairfield has won a third quarter this season.
Junior Kelly Haggerty and sophomore Tessa Caputo proved to be the main issues for the Drexel defense, as Haggerty got Fairfield’s seventh goal on the board from Caputo’s assist. The two linked up in the same fashion two other times throughout the game.
Both players ended with a hat trick of goals, and Caputo also picked up four assists, bringing her season total to 15, matching her four assists from last weekend’s win against Hofstra University. Caputo now totals 21 points and leads the Fairfield side, with Haggerty behind her on 15 points (12 goals, three assists).
Going into the final quarter, the Stags managed to obtain a crucial two goal lead, the most they had led by in the game since their four-goal run to open the game. Drexel’s attack kept persisting, however, cutting down the lead until the game was tied with under eight minutes on the clock.
Caputo fittingly scored the game-winner with 5:27 seconds left in the game, from an assist from junior Paige Gardner, her first of the game.
The Stag defense complemented their attacking efforts, forcing Drexel to a shot clock violation, and Fairfield goalkeeper graduate student Whitney Robinson making a vital save in the dying seconds of the game to keep Fairfield in front.
“I just really focused on not hitting the first cutter and making sure I was making the smart decision, and supporting my teammates to get the job done,” Caputo said. “Drexel is such a great team and this is a huge win for us and gives us great momentum, especially going into games against Army and Denver.”
“There’s lots of opportunity in these upcoming games. We are playing teams who are ranked or traditionally ranked. We did think it would be a close game, we thought it would be more of a high scoring game. When you play a team like Drexel, you can’t ever count them out” Head Coach Laura Field added.
Fairfield travels to Army West Point University this Wednesday before they return to Rafferty Stadium on March 7 to play Denver University.
