NEW CASTLE, Del. - - Trailing by a goal in the first 13 seconds of overtime, the Wilmington University women's lacrosse team rallied to score back-to-back goals after the teams switched sides to come back and defeat Chestnut Hill, 15-14, in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference thriller on Wednesday afternoon at the Kirkwood Soccer Complex.
The Wildcats (7-4, 4-3 CACC) nearly dropped another conference game after leading late in the second half, but Liz Case and Molly Taylor had other thoughts as Wilmington rebounded to post the overtime win. Chestnut Hill (2-8, 2-5 CACC) scored five straight goals starting with 15 minutes to play in regulation to take a 13-12 lead, but couldn't hold on for the upset win.
Finding themselves down 8-5 with 5:14 remaining in the first half, Wilmington reeled off the final two goals of the first half and the first seven goals of the second half to take a commanding 12-8 lead with 18:19 left in regulation.
Case, who scored six goals in the win, ended the first half with back-to-back goals with less than two minutes to play, leading the team into the break trailing only by one. Jess Graybeal opened the second half and kept the momentum on the home team's side, scoring her only goal of the game off a pass by Case to make it 8-8. Jaclyn Hall gave the 'Cats the lead with an unassisted goal with 27:46 to play before Jess Stratton tallied back-to-back goals to extend the lead to 11-8 with 23:22 left in the second half. Taylor capped the scoring run on a nice feed by Case to make it the largest lead of the game for either team at 12-8 with 18:19 showing on the scoreboard.
Chestnut Hill did not roll over however, and battled back with five straight goals to take a shocking 13-12 lead with 4:48 left in regulation.
The Wildcats got the ball back after forcing the Griffin goalkeeper into a clearing opportunity turnover, picked up by Case in her own end. Megan Keffer earned a free possession chance with 3:01 to play, but her shot went wide and the Wildcats retained possession by chancing down the ball. Case worked the clock down to 2:21 before she was fouled by the Griffins, earning another 8-meter shot. Case made this one count, as she beat Jenn Delahanty for the tying mark with 2:20 to play.
The Griffins put the pressure on Wilmington in the overtime period, as Lindsay Alexander earned the draw control off the opening whistle and quickly got the ball to Brianne Timony in the offensive zone. Timony put the Griffins up, 14-13, with her 31st goal of the season barely 13 seconds into the overtime period.
The score remained the same at the end of the first three minute overtime half, as the teams switched sides for the second three-minute overtime session.
Stratton forced a turnover with 2:44 left in overtime, and got the ball into the hands of Case in the offensive zone. Case was eventually fouled close to the goal for another 8-meter chance, this time to tie the game. She converted the opportunity with 2:30 to play, her 29th of the season.
Meggan Apgar earned the ensuing draw control, giving possession back to the Wildcats with a chance to take the lead. Wilmington ran the clock down for over a minute while keeping possession in the offensive zone. Taylor made her way from behind the goal and into the scoring zone, beating Delahanty with 1:22 to play for the eventual game-winning goal.
Stratton controlled the all-important draw following Taylor's goal and the Wildcats were able to run out the clock for the come from behind victory.
Case ended with six goals and two assists to lead all scorers with eight points. Stratton also recorded a hat trick, scoring three goals on four shots. Taylor tallied two marks on the day while Ashley Kroll, Graybeal, Jaclyn Hall and Rebecca Guethler rounded out the Wildcats goals.
Chestnut Hill was led by Alexander's four goals while Kelly Campbell and Timony also tallied hat tricks with three goals each.
Kaitlyn Hall recorded 10 stops in goal for the Wildcats to improve to 6-4 on the year while Delahanty made 20 stops in net for the Griffins.
With the win, the Wildcats remain in third place in the CACC and will look to make it two wins in a row on Saturday as they host Post at Kirkwood starting at 12 noon.
