Harford Women’s Lacrosse Takes Early Lead, But Drops 15-12 Decision to Howard

From the HCC sports desk:

COLUMBIA, Md.—The Harford women’s lacrosse team took an early, 2-0, lead, but host Howard would go on a 4-1 run to take its first and last lead of the game on the way to the 15-12 win over the Fighting Owls (2-7, 1-4 MDJUCO) on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.

Harford has lost its last four straight, while the Dragons improve to 3-2 on the season and 3-1 in the conference.

Freshman Melissa Warczynski (Street, Md./North Harford) led the Owls with seven points (5g, 2a) on the day, while freshman keeper Brittany MacKnew (Abingdon, Md./Bel Air) totaled 19 saves in the 60:00.

On the Dragon side, Catie Meyers led the way with eight goals, while Taylor Kirker added another four points (1g, 3a) for Howard.

Harford struck first with a goal by sophomore Anna Pollitt (Aberdeen, Md./Havre de Grace) off a feed from Warczynski just 2:55 into the first half and doubled that lead as freshman Nicole Miller (Aberdeen, Md./Aberdeen) tallied an unassisted score three minutes later.

Allison Barlow would put the Dragons on the board with an unassisted goal at the 20:40 mark and Meyers would make it a tie game just 20 seconds later with an unassisted tally of her own.

After freshman Nichole Terry’s (Havre de Grace, Md./Harford Tech) goal off Pollitt’s assist at the 17:14 mark, Howard would see two goals within 10 seconds of one another, by Meyers and Katie Green as they it took its first lead, 4-3.

They would not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the contest and built it to three goals, 7-5, by the end of the first half.

Harford would cut the lead to one as Warczynski connected after Miller’s pass 2:16 into the second, but three straight goals by the Dragons would give them their biggest lead, 10-6.

Harford would come no closer than three goals for the duration, and Howard would allow the Owls to score just two goals in succession, while leading by five on two occasions, on the way to the 15-12 victory.

The Fighting Owls will conclude their four-game roadstand on Thursday when they travel to face CCBC-Catonsville for a 5:00 p.m. game before closing out the regular season at home with matches against CCBC-Essex on April 21 and Anne Arundel on April 23.