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Geneva Wins First Game of the Season

Geneva held off the late advances by Livonia to defeat the Bulldogs 11-10.  This is the first win of the season for Geneva (1-4) and the first loss for Livonia (4-1).  Both teams played a strong game with standout plays on both offense and defense.  Overall, the game was close throughout and it was either teams to win.

The first half belonged to Livonia, they scored the opening goal and led or tied for the first 25 minutes.  Geneva took off in the second half and scored the first four goals of the half, three off of 8m shots.  The Panthers remained in the lead for the rest of the contest and stopped the Bulldogs from forcing overtime late in the game.

Geneva was strong at the draw control and finished the game with 15/23 draws.  Meghan Sands (7) and Lauren DeVaney (5) combined for most of the draw controls.  Sands was also impressive on the offense and added 4g for her team.  For Livonia, Ellen O'Neil finished with 4g. Senior Audrey Weber played an impressive game on both the offensive and defense ends.  She finished with 3g, 2 draws, 1 groundball and 1 caused turnover.  However, her numbers do not do justice to her overall gameplay.  She was demonstrative on the defense and turned away multiple attempts at the cage by Geneva.  Her performance demonstrates why, especially defensively, statistics are not the sole metric for judging play.

Livonia scored the first two goals of the contest with Lauren Connor scoring unassisted with a drive down the middle of the field.  Four minutes later, O'Neil scored her first goal with a feed from Alli Coon.  Coon's assist was the only assisted goal for the Bulldogs.  Geneva came back with two more goals to tie the game.  Sands scored her first off a inside feed from Sydney Mittiga and Treasure Bruce scored the first of her 4g off a fast-break.  Livonia took back the lead less than two minutes later with a drive from behind the cage by Weber.

Geneva scored next to tie the game at 3-3.  Lauren DeVaney cleared the ball up field and found Sands cutting to the crease.  Livonia responded with another pair of goals.  O'Neil and Weber both scored their second goals of the game.  Weber's coming again with a drive from behind the cage.  Geneva finished out the half with Bruce's second goal coming with 0:06 on the clock.  Livonia led 5-4 at the half.

Coming out of halftime, Geneva found the 8m line 5 times in the first 7 minutes with 3 goals coming off the attempts.  About one minute into the half and DeVaney was sent to the line.  Her first attempt was stopped by the defense, but a shooting space violation sent her back to the line and this time she put it in the back of the net.  Less than a minute later and Bruce was on the line and her goal gave Geneva their first lead of the game (6-5).  The game continued back and forth for five minutes before Geneva was back on the line (Sands).  40 seconds later and Sands scored again.  Sands and Emily Kerr both drove from behind the cage (Kerr with the ball).  Sands slipped past the defense and Kerr found her open on the crease.  Livonia called a timeout, but they trailed 8-5 with 18:15 left in the second half.

Livonia re-focused and kept the game close, but they could not tie the game again.  The Bulldogs scored three of the next four to bring the score to 9-8.  Lindsey Lopresto scored two and O'Neil score the third.  Geneva came back with two of their own: Another 8m goal from Bruce and a goal from Emily Kerr (assisted by Megan Kerr).  Geneva's final goal was scored at 8:18. The Bulldogs scored two more goals, but the Panthers held the ball for long stretches whenever they were on offense.

Weber scored her third with yet another drive from behind the cage with 1:43 remaining to pull the game within two.  The final score was O'Neil's fourth off a 8m shot with 0:12 remaining on the clock.  The Panthers continued their strength at the draw and picked up the final ball to run out the clock.

In the cage for Geneva, Hailey Fulton recorded 11 saves (five off 8m shots).  Her saves early in the second half (four 8m saves to start off the half) kept the Bulldogs off the scoreboard and let her offense take their first lead.  For Livonia, Carley Delandro recorded 6 saves.


Ha1
   on 05-04-2024
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