March 24, 2015

The SUNY Oneonta women's lacrosse team returned to the win column Tuesday evening on All College Field. Led by a combined nine goals from freshman Taylor Casey (Garden City South/Kellenberg Memorial) and senior Nikki Fioretti (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown), the Red Dragons burned the Keene State Owls by a score of 16-9.
 
Fioretti extended her goal scoring streak to four a mere 38 seconds into the contest when she fired one of Casey's three assists past the Owl keeper. Following a Keene retaliation, Casey pushed her career starting scoring streak to seven games when she put the Red and White back up by one off a feed from senior Nicole Boylan (Massapequa/Massapequa).
 
The middle portion of the opening half was a clear possession battle neither team could take control of. The Red Dragon defense held strong keeping shot attempts to a minimum, allowing just six total in the half.
 
Scoring picked up again with just under 11 minutes until halftime when Keene's Kaitlin Nolan tied the game at two. Casey made sure that tie did not last long as she scored on an individual effort for her second of the day and 25^th of the year. Sophomore Heather Fitzpatrick (Plainview/Plainview JFK) extended the lead to a two when she took a pass from Katie Flannery (Massapequa/Plainedge) rifled it to the back of the net.
 
Junior Catherine Clark (Burnt Hills/Burnt Hills) added the fifth goal of the half before Keene tacked on one of its own to take the game to a 5-3 halftime score. The Red Dragons recorded 18 shot attempts in the first 30 minutes of play, while corralling 11 ground balls and controlling six of nine draws.
 
The owls notched the first two goals of the second stanza, causing Red Dragon's head coach Ali Pollock to make a change in net from Autumn Moore (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) to Rori Stark (Brewster/Brewster). That change seemed to have set a fire under the home squad who erupted for 11 goals in the half.
 
After the change between the pipes Oneonta pocketed the next five goals, including four in just under two minutes. Casey started the spurt at 3:19 off a feed from Flannery, followed by rookie Jaime Morris (West Nyack/Clarkstown South) on a free position shot at 4:25. Fioretti tallied a pair 25 seconds apart first on a free position shot at 4:47, then off a Casey assist at 5:12. Casey capped the run again teaming with Fioretti at 6:50.


The Owls tried to claw back with the next three goals over a five-minute span only to be shut down by the Red Dragon defense the final 18 minutes.
 
  Oneonta tacked on six more goals including a pair from Flannery and one each from Fioretti, Casey, Morris and Boylan to finish the game strong.
 
Oneonta's second half goals came on 23 shot attempts; they would take 41 shots on the day. Stark picks up her first career win making a pair of saves in 27:15 of action.
 
The Red and White waste no time getting back to action as they return to All College Field Thursday when they host Hamilton a 4 p.m.