ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – The St. Bonaventure women's lacrosse team started Atlantic 10 Conference play with a 19-6 win over La Salle Saturday afternoon at a sunny but cold Marra Athletics Complex.
 
Fiona McGovern (2G-3A), Rylee Gonzalez (4G-1A) and Tori Nascimento (4G-1A) all had five points on the day to give St. Bonaventure its third consecutive win over the Explorers. 
 
The Bonnies (5-3, 1-0 A-10) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes of play. McGovern netted the first two scores of the day for the Brown and White before Gonzalez recorded her first goal with 8:15 on the clock.
 
La Salle (1-6, 0-1 A-10) got on the board with six minutes remaining in the opening stanza, but Gonzalez responded swiftly for the Bonnies to make it 4-1.
 
The Explorers leading scorer Katie Johnson posted her first goal of the day to end the first quarter with the Bonnies leading 4-2.
 
In the second quarter, the Bonnies outscored the Explorers 6-1 to take a 10-3 lead into the break.
 
McGovern assisted on the first two goals of the second stanza, helping Sidney Van Tassel and Nascimento score.
 
Gonzalez, Grace Hollenbeck, and Brooke Piper extended the Bonnies 5-0 run to start the quarter before Emi Waldron found the back of the net for the Explorers.
 
Nascimento capped off the first half, scoring her second of the day with four seconds on the clock.
 
Two minutes into the third quarter, the Bonnies went on the penalty kill after being assessed a green card but caused a quick turnover and went on the attack. Hollenbeck scored on a feed from Piper to extend the Bonnies lead to 11-3.
 
Hollenbeck's man-down goal is the first for the Bonnies since Nora Anderson scored a shorthanded goal against Duquesne in 2022.
 
Johnson added another for the Explorers with 12:05 remaining in the quarter; However, the Bonnies responded with a 5-1 run to end the third quarter.
 
Piper and Nascimento scored twice in the third stanza while Van Tassel added her second of the contest to make it a 15-4 game with 15 minutes to play.
 
La Salle opened the final quarter with another goal from Johnson.
 
The Bonnies responded with three goals to ice the game a earn their first Atlantic 10 victory of the season.
 
Gonzalez scored her fourth with 11:49 on the clock, posting her second game with five or more points this season.
 
Katelyn Rokitka and Emma Hollenbeck both scored their first goals of the season for the Brown and White, making it an 13 goal differential, the largest-ever margin of victory for the Bonnies over La Salle.
 
Megan Schillinger had another outstanding day in the draw circle, with 11 draw controls. The junior now has four games with 10 or more draw controls.
 
It was a balanced effort on defense for Bona's, with eight different Bonnies recording caused turnovers.
 
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH LEIGHANN STAUFFER
"We played a great game all around today. This team is on a revenge tour from last season, and they want to make it to the Atlantic 10 Tournament more than anything. We took a hard loss last Sunday, but today proves you can't keep us down for long."
 
UP NEXT
The Bonnies travel to Rhode Island next Saturday to take on the Rams in their inaugural season.
 

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