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| Mary Maloney scored five goals and had an assist in the Skyhawks 18-13 win |
Warriors Give No. 9 Skyhawks A Scare
Easton, Mass. - The ninth ranked Skyhawks led Merrimack just 10-9 at the half but took control in the second behind a career high six goals from Liza Gross (Loudonville, N.Y.) on their way to their 18-13 victory on Tuesday night in Andover.
Gross added two assists to go along with her six tallies, matching her career high with eight points. The junior also added three ground balls, three caused turnovers and a season high six draw controls as the Skyhawks improved to 7-1 overall and 7-0 in NE-10 play.
Stonehill jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first two minutes and built their lead to 5-2 with under 16 minutes remaining in the half. However, Warriors got two goals in less than 30 seconds, the second of which came at the 14:12 mark to cut the lead to 5-4.
Michelle Kelly (Mendham, N.J.) responded with a goal less than a minute later and goals by Gross and senior Mary Maloney (Great River, N.Y.) upped the lead to 8-5 with just 11:55 left.
Over the final 12 minutes of the half Merrimack outscored the Skyhawks 4-2, including the final two goals of the first period to cut the Stonehill lead to 10-9.
In the second half, Michelle Salmon (East Islip, N.Y.) scored just 1:15 in to extend the Skyhawk lead to 11-9. The senior then assisted on a Maloney goal four minutes later to stretch the lead to three.
The Skyhawks upped their lead to 15-11 over the seven and a half minutes before a Kelly Pasquantonio score cut the Warrior deficit to three with just under 17 minutes remaining. Another Merrimack tally made it a two goal game at the 15:20 mark.
However, Stonehill shut out the Warriors the rest of the way, as freshman Sarah Galligan (West Newbury, Mass.) and Gross scored in a three minute span to give the Skyhawks a 17-13 lead with 11:13 remaining. Maloney added her fifth goal of the game with under two minutes left for the 18-13 final.
For the Warriors, goalie Jamie-Lee Whiteway made 21 saves while her counterpart, senior Justine Ferland (Portsmouth, N.H.), made seven saves in 60 minutes of action.
Maloney tied a career high five goals and also added an assist while Salmon had a goal and two assists to go along with three caused turnovers.
Stonehill returns to action on Thursday when they play conference foe Franklin Pierce and then travel to take on the top ranked team Adelphi Panthers on Saturday.