Harford Women’s Lacrosse Routed by No. 1 Catonsville, 25-7

From the HCC sports desk:

BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford women’s lacrosse team dropped its second straight as it fell to visiting defending national champion and current No. 1 CCBC-Catonsville, 25-7, on Tuesday afternoon at Harford Stadium. The Fighting Owls (1-2, 0-2 MDJUCO) saw the Cardinals (7-1, 3-0 MDJUCO) take a commanding, 16-2 lead by the half, but made things much more competitive in the second period, with Catonsville holding a 9-5 advantage in that stanza.

Freshman Melissa Warczynski (Edgewood, Md./North Harford) led Harford on the day with four points (3g, 1a), while all but two starters added at least one goal for Catonsville.

Ashley Edwards and Danielle Callahan each tallied eight points for the Knights, with Edwards totaling four goals and two assists and Callahan adding three goals and assists each.

Catonsville pelted Harford with 53 total shots, while Harford managed just nine each half for 18 total. Freshman goalkeeper Brittany MacKnew (Abingdon, Md./Bel Air) totaled 16 saves for the Fighting Owls while Kelly Veins and Nicole Morris split time to account for nine saves with Veins making six and Morris three.

The Cardinals struck early and often in the first period, with Kara Cashen adding the first score just 1:17 into the half and assisting on Gretchyn Ordakowski’s tally just 10 seconds later.

Catonsville would build its lead to five, 5-0, by the 23:46 mark, and a yellow card by freshman Nichole Terry (Havre de Grace, Md./Harford Tech) at the 22:44 mark put the Cardinals a man-up for three minutes, before Anna Pollitt incurred another card at the 21:34 mark to give Catonsville another three minute advantage.

The Cardinals would score three goals during the extra man opportunities to build an 8-0 lead, before freshman Cortney Chen (Havre de Grace, Md./Havre de Grace) put Harford on the board after taking a feed from Warczynski with 18:37 remaining in the period. The goal was also a man-up affair as Kyle Evans and Emily Reese drew yellow cards at the 19:47 and 19:44 marks, respectively.

Even with fewer players on the field, the Cardinals managed to score two short-handed goals to take a 10-1 lead before freshman Nicole Miller (Aberdeen, Md./Aberdeen) fed Terry for the Owls only other goal of the first half.

Catonsville would add six more goals before time expired to take a 16-2 lead into halftime, but it was Harford which scored first in the second stanza as freshman Maria Bush (Joppa, Md./Joppatowne) added her first of two goals just 26 seconds into the second.

After six more Cardinal scores, Warczynski would add her first tally at the 16:38 mark and then her second with 13:19 remaining and her final goal at the 6:47 mark before Bush closed out the scoring for both teams with an unassisted goal at the 2:53 mark, as Catonsville rolled to the 25-7 victory.

The Fighting Owls return to action on Thursday when they travel to CCBC-Essex for a 6:00 p.m. game before hosting Nassau on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.