Box Score

SCRANTON, Pa. – Facing perhaps its toughest test of the year, the Susquehanna women's lacrosse team put its 10-0 record on the line Thursday evening in its league opener at Scranton. The Crusaders passed that test with flying colors, downing the Royals 14-7 to grab the win.

With the victory, SU (11-0, 1-0) remains undefeated and continues its best start in program history. Scranton (9-3, 1-1), meanwhile, suffered its first league loss of the season.

Goalie Emily Stankaitis (Honeoye Falls, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima) racked up 16 saves in the game, 11 of which came in the second half, to earn the win.

Emma Ehler (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) led the scoring effort with four goals to go along with an assist. Brynn Reid (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) had three goals and an assist for a four-point game. Two other players had two-goal outings.

SU took 39 shots to the Royals' 28 and won an impressive 16 of 23 draw controls in the game.

It took Reid and the Crusaders 34 seconds to score when the freshman netted a goal for the early 1-0 SU lead. Less than 10 minute s later, Reid struck again as Lindsey Derstine (Coopersburg, Pa./Southern Lehigh) found her in front of the net for the 2-0 score. That marked the first of three Susquehanna goals in two-and-a-half minutes to make it 4-0 after only 12:33 of play.

Erin Dyer (West Caldwell, N.J./James Caldwell) added another goal 20 seconds later to build SU's lead to five. Back-to-back Scranton goals cut the lead to three (5-2) with less than seven minutes remaining and both teams traded goals in the final 1:45 to play to give the Crusaders the 6-3 halftime lead.

SU netted the first goal of the second half after only nine seconds of action which was followed 35 seconds later by a Royals score that made it a 7-4 game.

Susquehanna then rattled off seven unanswered goals to go up 14-4 with more than 12 minutes still remaining with six different players accounting for those seven scores. Ally Bauer's (Kinnelon, N.J./Kinnelon) goal at the 18:15 mark was the score that upped her squad's lead to 10 (14-4).

Scranton was able to break the streak with three straight goals that made it 14-7 with just over four minutes left in the game. The SU defense did not give up another goal, though, and time ran out on any attempted comeback from the Royals as the Crusaders won 14-7.

The Crusaders return home on April 14 to host Landmark Conference opponent Catholic at 3 p.m.