Falcons Rush Past Bison, 17-8

Laferriere notches six goals in home opener

FITCHBURG --- The Fitchburg State University women's lacrosse team opened its 2017 season on Tuesday afternoon, doubling up Nichols College 12-6 throughout the second-half to earn a 17-8 victory in non-conference play at Elliot Field.  

Seniors Ali Laferriere and Andrea Comeau led the Falcons with six and five goals respectively, while classmate Kayla Panek set up her teammates all night long, picking up four assists and a pair of goals. Junior Carrie Long also scored three goals.  

In the first half, Comeau began the season in a big way, scoring three of the Falcons five goals and helping give the host a 5-2 advantage into the intermission.

 After the halftime break, the teams matched one another goal for goal in the first ten minutes of the second session as Laferriere scored two of her teams four goals in that span to keep them in front, 9-6.

 Throughout the final twenty minutes it seemed as if any ground Nichols made up was erased quickly by a marker from the Green & Gold. Laferriere and Long got it going when they matched goals less than four minutes apart of each other (11-6).

A pair of Nichols goals, the first from senior Olivia Marawski and the other from freshman Miranda Smith, bookended a marker from Comeau with 11:25 left to play. From there, the Falcons scored five unanswered goals to close out their first victory of the season with the 17-8 final score.

For the game, Fitchburg State controlled a 40-21 shot margin during the contest, with 24 of its shots coming in the goal-filled second half, while also maintaining a 32-27 advantage on groundballs and controlled 19 draws out of 27 in the game. Nichols were able to secure the ball better, committing 23 turnovers to the Falcons 24.

In net, newcomer Marguerite Belcher played her first game as a member of the Falcons, logging a complete sixty-minute effort and coming up with 12 saves and allowing eight goals to get her first collegiate win between the pipes. For Nichols, freshman Emily Eagan had a complete game effort with 19 saves.

Fitchburg State (1-0) host its second home contest of the week on Thursday March 9^th when Johnson & Wales come to Elliot Field. Nichols (1-1) has its home-opener March 9^th against Framingham State University.

 Release courtesy of Student Journalist Kyle Prudhomme