No. 9 WCU pours it on, beats Bloom

WEST GOSHEN » No head coach at the Division II level has won more on the lacrosse field than West Chester’s Ginny Martino. And now in her 21st season at the helm, Martino admits that she can be quite particular. But even she had to acknowledge that the first 10 minutes of the Golden Rams’ PSAC contest on Tuesday at Vonnie Gros Field were extraordinary.

Unbeaten and ranked ninth nationally, WCU got off to a scorching start and proceeded to dismantle PSAC foe Bloomsburg, 21-6. The Rams improve to 14-0 overall, and sit atop the conference standings at 9-0 with three regular season contests to go.

“The confidence we showed (Tuesday) is what I love to see,” Martino said. “The last couple games I felt like our defense was holding us in games. So to see our attack come out and finally get some things going was encouraging.”

With the win, West Chester clinches a postseason bid to the PSAC Tournament. If the Rams can finish off the program’s first unbeaten regular season since 2010, they will host the tournament.

“This season has been so much fun,” said sophomore attacker Tara Morrissey. “I love our team and the way we work together.”

It wound up being WCU’s highest scoring outing of the season by far, and not only did 10 different players tally at least one score, six had multiple goals.

“In the previous few games we just weren’t clicking. But in this one we really killed it,” said Morrissey, a Downingtown native who attended Bishop Shanahan.

“We definitely focused on coming out strong, and we really did that,” added junior midfielder Maggie Stella. “We took control. We’ve talked about it and we’ve been emphasizing it this past week.”

The Rams blitzed the Huskies (5-4, 9-5) from the start, scoring the game’s first eight goals in a little over nine minutes of play. A transfer from Division I Robert Morris, Stella was a dominant force as she won the first eight draws and scored two of her three goals (and dished out two of her three assists) in the early surge.

“Bloomsburg has some very good players, so if you get off to a slow start and you give them some momentum, you never know,” Martino said. “All those draws in the beginning were huge. It put (Bloomsburg) back on their heels. Everybody brought the heat today.”

It was 8-0 before Bloomsburg managed a shot on goal. Well before halftime a running clock was instituted as WCU’s lead widened. It was 15-2 at the break. It wasn’t, however, a perfect half according to Martino.

“I’m pretty picky,” she acknowledged. “We can certainly clean some things up, like when those double-teams come, not to wait until they are draped over us before we deliver the ball.”

The Rams went on to score six of the first seven goals of the second half to make it 21-3. The Huskies scored three goals in the final three minutes.

“Last year, when we got up by a lot we would let the opposition come back,” said Morrissey, who led WCU with five goals and added two assists. “But this year we are doing a good job of holding our ground.”

As expected, West Chester had a clear edge in every statistical category, including draw controls (19-9), shots (37-12) and shots on goal 31-7.

The Rams were 12-5 a year ago but are still relatively young. The 26-person roster includes just seven juniors and only one senior. Sophomore Tatum Altman had three goals and three assists, and freshman Trisha Baud added a pair along with juniors Rachel Noble and Sami Barnett.

“Our record doesn’t surprise me at all,” Morrissey said.

“It was hard to get a feel for this team at the beginning of the season because of all the new rules,” Martino explained. “I knew we were fast and we had a lot of young kids that brought some different things to the table. So I was excited, and yet hesitant.

“But this group has adapted well. This far into the season, it feels like we’ve played with a shotclock forever. Sometimes we overthink things. But this group has the fight, the tenacity and the determination, and you can’t really coach that. Teams either have that fire or not. This group has it.”