Stephen Lapage, Sports Reporter
After coming off a win on the road against Central Michigan, the Griffs hosted their first home games of the season against Detroit Mercy and Le Moyne.
Canisius held their first home game against Detroit Mercy on March 2nd. The Griffs started the scoring fast as they netted three unanswered goals to start the first quarter. Detroit Mercy battled back and scored five straight goals before the end of the first quarter, giving them the lead 5-3. The Griffs were able to score quickly to cut the lead to one, but Detroit Mercy quickly responded to regain their two goal lead. The rest of the quarter was back and forth, but the Griffs were able to head into halftime with an 8-7 lead.
Canisius came into the second half firing, as they scored six unanswered goals throughout the second half. After going down seven goals, Detroit Mercy was able to score four straight goals, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Canisius won their first home game 14-11. Graduate student Paige Stachura and seniors Riley Davis and Grace Harner each recorded a hat trick in the contest.
The Griffs looked to carry their momentum into their game against the Le Moyne Dolphins on March 6th. The Griffs have played the Dolphins in exhibition games, but this would be the first contest since Le Moyne transitioned into division one. Le Moyne came out strong in the windy conditions, scoring three straight goals to give the Dolphins the lead going into the second quarter. After a goal by sophomore Meg Hiltz in the second quarter, the Griffs found their offense and scored three straight goals to tie the game at three. The teams batted back and forth, but the game was tied at five going into halftime.
Senior Caroline Netti scored her third goal of the game in the first minute after halftime to give Canisius the lead. The teams kept trading goals as they went into the fourth quarter tied at seven. Netti scored just 20 seconds into the fourth quarter to reclaim the lead for Canisius. The Griffs were able to score two more goals before the end of the game to give Canisius a 10-7 win over Le Moyne.
Netti had five goals in the contest, which tied her career high for goals in a single game. When asked about the slow start, Netti said: “We were getting good looks and opportunities, but this goalie was very good. We all got into the huddle and took a deep breath. We knew what the goalie was going to do, we just had to beat her.”
The offense at points seemed to be halted, to which Netti said: “We always control the controllable. We can’t control the refs calls and we can’t control what they do to us on the field. We just have to focus on us and our play will come through. We just trust what we are capable of.”
The Griffs host two more games before going on the road again. On Saturday March 9th, Canisius hosts New Hampshire for an 11 a.m. face off. They will also host St. Bonaventure on Wed. March 13th for a 6 p.m. face off.
Pictures courtesy of Joe Lehrman