Towson Beats GW for LaMonica's First win
from press release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senior Ali Lathroum
scored a career high five goals and Towson University (1-3)
presented Sonia LaMonica with her first victory as the
Tigers’ coach, a 17-10 victory over George Washington
University (1-6) at Mount Vernon Field on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers, who were held to 12 goals in their first three games,
erupted for 11 goals in the final 11:59 of the first half to take a
12-2 lead at halftime. After extending their lead to 14-3 early in
the second half, Coach LaMonica substituted liberally as the Tigers
cruised to the win.
"Scoring all those goals at the end of the first half gave us a
confidence boost," said LaMonica. "We did a wonderful job working
together and it resulted in better scoring opportunities for us. We
did a great job moving without the ball.
"I hope we learned how much easier it is to score when we play that
way," she added.
Freshman Kelly Murkey gave the Tigers a quick 1-0 lead just 54
seconds into the game when she converted a free position shot. With
23:52 left in the half, junior Megan Seidman of GW tied the game at
1-1 when she scored a free position shot.
Although the Tigers were dominating action, they could not take a
lead. Finally, sophomore Ashley Waldron scored on a free position
goal with 11:59 left in the half. That goal seemed to open the
floodgates as the Tigers scored nearly a goal per minute for the
rest of the half.
With 11:06 left in the half, senior Jess Dunn scored an unassisted
goal to give the Tigers a 3-1 lead. Junior Sarah Appelt added an
unassisted goal with 9:22 left for a 4-1 lead. Only 20 seconds
later, Waldron scored her second goal of the game off a pass from
Appelt to make it a 5-1 advantage.
Dunn scored off a pass from Appelt to increase the lead to 6-1
before Seidman tallied a goal to make it 6-2 with 6:37 remaining in
the half.
Only 36 seconds later, Lathroum’s free position goal made it
a 7-2 lead. Over the next 1:42, Lathroum added two more unassisted
goals to put the Tigers up, 9-2.
Freshman Katie Leech scored the first goal of her college career
off a pass from Shannon Lechner with 2:02 left in the half for a
10-2 lead. With 1:26 left in the half, Waldron tallied her third
goal of the game off a pass from Leech to increase the lead to
11-2.
A goal by sophomore Olivia Turner with 38 seconds left closed out
the first half scoring as the Tigers took a 12-2 lead into
halftime.
In their dominant first half, the Tigers outshot the Colonials by a
22-7 margin and won 11 of 15 draw controls.
Just 31 seconds into the second half, Turner scored her second goal
of the game off a pass from Appelt to give Towson a 13-2 lead.
With 9:31 remaining in the game, Turner scored off a pass from
freshman Andi Raymond to put the Tigers ahead, 15-5.
At that point, the Colonials’ offense came to life. GW went
on a 5-0 run to pull within 15-10 with 4:50 left.
With all the momentum in the Colonials’ favor, senior
goalkeeper Kristy Hankinson made a great save on a point-blank shot
by Mia Breheny and started a fast break the other way. With 2:24
left, Lathroum scored a free position goal to make it a 16-10 lead.
Lathroum’s fifth goal of the game with 2:01 left upped the
lead to 17-10 and put the game out of reach.
"That was a big save," admitted LaMonica. "Kristy made a very
aggressive save and got us a possession. We were able to regain
control of the game."
Lathroum was one of three Tigers to record career highs in the win.
Waldron added a career best four goals with one assist while Turner
had a career best three goals. Dunn added two goals as the Tigers
outshot GW, 36-20.
Junior goalkeeper Mary Teeters made two saves and allowed two goals
while playing the first half. Hankinson replaced Teeters at
halftime and made three saves.
The Colonials were led by Sarah Phillips and Breheny, who scored
three goals each.
Sophomore Alexa Demski paced the Tigers’ defensive effort
with four ground balls and two caused turnovers. Sophomore Kelly
Custer had a team high four draw controls.
The Tigers return to action on Tuesday afternoon when they host #14
Syracuse at 4:00 p.m.
