Royals Overtake Gophers with Late Seven-Goal Run

Four Goals from Smith Helps Goucher Open Up 9-5 Lead

TOWSON, Md. — Goucher squandered a four-goal lead over Scranton with just over 10 minutes left to play as the Royals rallied to score seven times down the stretch and pull out a 12-10 Landmark Conference victory over the Gophers this afternoon on Beldon Field.

Approaching halftime, Goucher was up 5-3, but unassisted goals by Mary Lambert (Chapel Hill, N.C./Chapel Hill) and Andi Lipson (Langhorne, Pa./George School) in the final 30 seconds of the first period bumped the advantage up to 7-3 after 30 minutes.

Becca Smith (Leesburg, Va./Heritage), who finished with four goals, opened the scoring in the second half by sticking a free-position shot 5:12 into the period, providing the Gophers (4-7, 0-1 Landmark) with their biggest lead of the contest at 8-3. After the Royals (8-2, 1-0 Landmark) closed to within 8-5 by scoring the next two goals, Hannah Brown (Pinedale, Wyo./Dunn School) got one of those back for Goucher by tallying an unassisted goal with 10:46 left to play.

Starting with a goal off a free-position shot by Emily Goss, Scranton responded with a run of seven consecutive goals. The Royals caught the Gophers at 9-9 on an unassisted goakl by Deanna Giorno with 7:37 left to play and passed them just over one minute later on an unassisted goal by Kaela Mahon.

Scranton's lead peaked at 12-9 when Mahon scored her fourth goal of the contest with 1:14 left to play, but the Gophers wouldn't give in and were able to reduce their deficit to two thanks to an unassisted goal by Anneke Ossorio (Lafayette, Colo./Kent Denver School) with :57 showing on the clock.

The Gophers enjoyed a significant edge in shots in the first half, 19-5, but by the end of the game the Royals managed to reduce the advantage to 31-20.