No. 1 Boston College lacrosse immediately began its first quarter by attacking Brown’s offensive zone in Tuesday afternoon’s matchup, but failed to find an opportunity to earn the quick lead.
Brown retaliated by making the Eagles go on the defensive and snuck past BC to land the first goal of the game. Brown gained an initial 1–0 lead, and it quickly added a second goal to their total at 10:59.
The Eagles had to fight their way back from the two goal deficit early in the game.
BC (11–0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) quickly answered thereafter and never looked back, coasting to another dominant offensive performance in an 18–7 win over Brown (5–2, 0–1 Ivy).
The Eagles found their first goal from Mckenna Davis at 9:13 and a second goal soon after from Emma LoPinto on a power play at 8:35 to even the score 2–2.
Maria Themelis gave BC its third goal and first lead of the game from a free-position shot to make the score 3–2.
BC earned a fourth goal from a shot by Rachel Clark to close out the scoring for the first quarter.
Clark is first in the nation for total goals scored with 51 and total points with 66.
The Bears put up a strong fight in front of their net, causing BC to only score three goals in the second quarter—a low number for the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. Mia Mascone, LoPinto, and Molly Driscoll off of a free position shot all added to the goal total.
BC had to hustle on defense to put a stop to the strong efforts by Brown, allowing it only one goal in the second quarter. The Eagles began to show a more dominant performance over the Bears, continuing to increase their lead.
“I just thought that the draw team was excellent. I thought Shea Dolce had an incredibly complete game and I just think the offense really shared the ball really well,” BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. “It was awesome to see different people scoring in different ways and it’s a really good challenge for us.”
Eagles goaltender Shea Dolce had nine saves in the first half, reinforcing the cushioned lead BC held throughout the matchup.
Clark earned BC its first goal of the third quarter off of a free-position shot on a power play at 12:04.
“It sounds cliche to say but it really is true, my game is all because of my teammates. They set me up and do their jobs so well that it lets me do mine,” Clark said. “Them being so good at what they do lets me be good at what I do.”
Towards the end of the third, BC began to pull away, scoring four more goals before the fourth quarter. Lydia Colasante, LoPinto, Mascone, and Brooke McLoy each got a goal and Clark clocked one more to push the score to 13–6.
For the fourth quarter, BC had to retain their lead without letting the Bears strong offense find opportunities to sneak through and even the score.
“I think, like, our game plan going into it was just dominating play together—play on a string. It’s always kind of our game plan.” Colasante said.
The Eagles offense continuously blew past Brown’s defense for five more goals while holding the Bears to only one more. Devon Russell, Emma Claire Quinn, and Mallory Hasselback also recorded goals throughout the fourth quarter, pushing BC’s lead even further ahead.
“The midfielders were phenomenal on defense and offense,” Colasante said in praise of her teammates. “Just controlling the pace of the game and setting the tone for both units and especially Shea Dolce on her head as always.”
The Eagles denied the Bears any chance at coming back and ended the game with a final score of 18–7, giving BC its 11th straight win.
“I thought we played a very complete game. We pulled off a really strong third and fourth quarter which I was really happy about. We’ve been trying to do that all year,” Walker-Weinstein said, “I just think the girls were focused and playing for each other and I’m really happy about that.”
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