CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -- It's the right time of the year for the Elizabethtown College women's soccer team's offense to be clicking. On Tuesday at DeSales, the Blue Jays put up four goals for the second consecutive game and ran away with their non-conference game against the Bulldogs, 4-1.
Katrina Morales,
Madison Burnham, and
Lydia Lawson all scored for E-town. Lawson had a pair of goals.
What was a close game last season at Ira R. Herr Field was not so much at DUC Field Tuesday afternoon. Elizabethtown (6-7-2) outshot DeSales (7-7-2) 20-9 for the game and 12-3 in the first half.
Morales had the first go at goal in the third minute, though Bulldogs' goalie Lia Gaccione made the save. She also stopped a second shot from Morales in the 14th minute, but in the 15th minute, the Blue Jays' senior midfielder was able to beat the keeper for her first of the season. Morales, with a strong enough leg to get the ball on frame from outside the box, did just that 14:15 into E-town's final non-conference game of the year. From ten yards beyond the box, Morales netted her first of the year to give the Jays a 1-0 lead.
It was all Elizabethtown in the first half as DeSales wasn't even able to record a shot, which was blocked, until the 21st minute. Not long after DSU's first attempt, Lawson latched onto a ball and scored her first of two in the game. 12 seconds after Anja Wilson had her shot blocked by a defender, the ball was taken off a DeSales players and Morales and Lawson did a give-and-go for the junior's Landmark-leading 14th of the season.
Of the three shots in the first 45 minutes for the Bulldogs, none were on frame.
Burnham tried to make it 3-0 in the 52nd minute, but Gaccione stopped her shot. She would, however, get her goal a little over a minute later. Using a pass from
Shannon Conlon, Burnham beat the DeSales goalie far post for her first of the year, which made it 3-0 in the 53rd minute.
Rachel Medlar got a goal back for DSU in the 68th minute with a header off Gabby Torchia's free kick delivery.
The lead went back to three in the 71st minute as Lawson and
Leigh Ungerleider connected on a give-and-go for the fourth goal of the game and Lawson's 15th of the year.
Christine Fox made four saves in the second half and played all 90 minutes in the win.
Elizabethtown holds the final playoff spot in the Landmark Conference and can assure a semifinal date next week with a win at Catholic on Saturday, October 27.
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