Eagles Roll Past Rangers in Final Game of the Year
HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The Juniata women's lacrosse team ended their season on a positive note with a 10-7 victory at Drew University Saturday afternoon at Ranger Stadium.
Kyndall Yeager had her fingerprints all over the game as she tallied eight points (3g, 5a) with a ground ball and two draw controls. Yeager's five assists tie the program record for assists in a game, and her eight points are a career-high. Peyton Goodrich totaled four goals and one draw control, while Grace Gibbs accumulated three goals, four ground balls, two draw controls, and three caused turnovers. Chloe Gerhard made four saves in goal to get the win.
A minute and 20 seconds into the game, Yeager found Gibbs cutting across the front of the goal, and she fired a shot past the keeper to get Juniata on the board. The Juniata lead remained at one until the final two minutes, when Yeager drew several defenders towards her, retreated, and flipped it to Goodrich, who ripped a shot over the goalie's left shoulder to double the Eagle lead heading into the second quarter.
The Rangers scored the first goal of the quarter and stayed within one until the final two minutes of the half. Yeager and Goodrich scored on free position shots a little over a minute apart, and they combined for a goal in the final nine seconds as Yeager found Goodrich, who slotted the ball home to put the Eagles up 5-1 heading into the half.
The Rangers found a grove in the third quarter scoring twice to get back within two. The teams would trade goals the rest of the quarter, with Gibbs scoring off another Yeager assist and Goodrich scoring unassisted. The hosts scored the final goal of the quarter as they narrowed the deficit to two, 7-5, heading into the final quarter.
Yeager pushed the lead back to five with a pair of free position goals and assisted Gibbs on another to give JC a five-goal cushion with six minutes to go. Drew scored the final two goals of the game, but Juniata left New Jersey with a program-best 13th win on the year.
Juniata was in a three-way tie with Drew and Susquehanna, with SU winning the tiebreaker (via having the best goal differential from the games the three teams played against one another) and earning the fourth spot in the Landmark postseason.
Juniata finishes the year 13-4 and 3-4 in the Landmark Conference.