By GABRIEL SERRANO
Staff Writer
The Saint Rose Golden Knights defeated the Post University Eagles 16-10 in their unexpected final game of the season as Deanna Ciliento led the scoring at The Christian Plumeri Sports Complex on Wednesday, March 10.
“We worked as a group and it showed the offense worked well together and we fed off each other,” said Ciliento. “We picked up on what we got beat on in the past to hold them to 10 goals. We were moving a lot on offense so when the cutter got through it was easy to get to the net and when the feeders dropped it off to me we were able to score easy goals.”
The Knights got off to a slow start in the first 5 minutes of the game when they got down to a 2-0 deficit. Freshman attacker Emilie Robbins opened up the scoring making it a 2-1 deficit as the Eagles answered with another goal of their own to go up 3-1 in the first 10 minutes of the game. Freshman attacker Margaret Brent, Robbins and Ciliento added a goal each to take a 4-3 lead around the first 19 minutes of the game.
The Eagles Cara Distefano added her second goal to tie the game up at 4. Freshman attacker Claudia Agostino added her first goal of the game to retake the lead for the Knights but Distefano tied up the game with her third goal of the season. Toward the end of the first half Ciliento was able to give the Knights the lead with her second goal of the game assisted by Robbins. The Knights ended the half with a 6-5 lead.
Ciliento opened the scoring in the second half added her third goal of the to give the Knights a 7-6 lead and Distefano quickly answered that goal and added her fourth goal of the game to even the score at 7. Freshman attacker Alexis Farr and freshman Midfielder and Defender Gabrielle Panko each added their first goals of the game while Ciliento added her fourth, assisted by Robbins as the Knights got up to a 10-7 lead.
“Today we played the best lacrosse game since the season started. Everyone was communicating with each other really well and everything was just connecting for us,” said Robbins. With a few games under my belt, I’ve gotten a feel for how much faster the college level is from the high school level. The college level is a lot different from high school and I hope I will continue to go up from where I am with my skills and lacrosse IQ.”
The Eagles were able to hang around as Distefano and Morgan Cassiliano cut the Knights lead to two while Farr added her second goal of the game as the Knights had a 11-9 lead with 10 minutes to go in the game. The Knights were able to pull away as everything began to click on both sides of the ball. Freshman midfielders Samantha Ebel and Payton O’Hara added their first goals of the game during the Knights’ five unanswered goals. Ciliento added two more goals to her six goal performance and Brent added her second of the game to give the Knights a 16-9 lead with just under 3 minutes left in the game.
On the defensive side of the ball the Knights were led by Sophomore defender Nicole Taveras who had seven caused turnovers and nine groundballs; sophomore Midfielder Ashley Burns added two groundballs and one caused turnover; and Panko added three caused turnovers and four groundballs of her own. Freshman goalie Madeline Yung ended the game with seven saves.
The Knights will look to build on this shortened season going into the 2021 season as they were (2-3) on the season with both wins coming at home in the Christian Plumeri Sports Complex.
“As it was our first season ever, I thought we played great. Obviously there are going to be obstacles that we were going to face, but we were able to overcome them and be successful on and off the field,” said Burns. “A lot of people underestimated us, but we were able to prove in just the 5 games we played that we belong in the NE10. Our last game was the last time we all played together this season, and it being a win made the game so special to all of us. We are able to say that we won all of our games at home our first season, so for next year I know a lot of us girls are going to want to keep the ball rolling and getting wins.”
