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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State lacrosse team opened its three-game homestand with a bang Thursday night with a dominant 21-14 win over St. Bonaventure.
 
Four Owls netted at least three goals with Abby Squires recording a career-high five goals to lead all scorers.
 
How it happened: The Bonnies (1-4) opened the game's scoring, but the Owls (2-3) responded immediately with four straight goals, two by Squires, to lead 4-1 at the 22:29 mark. After trading goals, Marissa Gore pushed the Owls' lead 8-3 with back-to-back goals.
 
KSU started to pull away behind a 5-0 run with five different Owls recording a goal to give KSU a 13-4 lead with just over three minutes to play. St. Bonaventure netted one more goal before the half came to a close.
 
The Bonnies opened up the second half with a goal, but the Owls kept the pressure on with back-to-back goals from Squires and Anna Giulitto for a 15-6 lead at the 25:19 mark. The two teams traded goals before KSU pushed its lead to double-figures with a 3-0 run to lead 19-8 with 13 minutes left to play. 
 
SBU chipped away at the Owls' lead with four straight goals to pull within seven, 19-12, at the seven-minute mark. Sophomore Madison McGhee finally brought an end to the run with her first goal of the season. Freshman Jaxsyn Schonewille followed up with her first career goal, slinging a free-position shot from eight-meters out.
 
SBU tried to mount a comeback, netting two more goals in the final three minutes, but the Owls held firm to record the win.
 
Notes: Anna Giulitto, Izzy Palermo and Marissa Gore all recorded three goals a piece, career-high marks for Gore and Giulitto … Abby Squires' five goals and five points are both career-highs … in her first full game after suffering an injury at Arizona State, Haley Swift recorded one goal and four assists … 10 different Owls recorded at least one goal in the game … KSU's 21 goals scored is tied for fifth most in a single-game in KSU history … the Owls 58.3 percent in the game, marking back-to-back games shooting 50 percent or better … as a team, KSU totaled a season-high 20 draw controls, tying the fifth most all-time in a single-game … Marissa Gore led the team with a career-high eight draw controls … Alex Bunn finished with six saves to become the Owls' all-time career saves leader with 194 total saves.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Laura Maness
On her thoughts about the game…
"I thought it was a really good team effort. We controlled the tempo of the game from the very first draw. Got out in front and I don't think there were any lead changes, so that was really good. We did well on draws and our shooting percentage was really high so I was excited about that. We were shooting the shots that we wanted to get. They were really scrappy and they didn't give up, they kept challenging us, fighting us, the whole 60 minutes. We need to focus on controlling the tempo when we have cards, man-downs, different weird scenarios that we saw today that we don't always see. We need to better prepare for that so if it happens we can make sure that we don't have to play so much man-down, that we keep the ball on offense when we are man-down and that we don't have to play too much man-down defense. Little things like that I think we need to fix moving forward, but a good team effort."
 
On SBU isolating Siena Gore…
"They had Siena face-guarded and we prepared for that, we figured teams this season would be doing that. Part of the preparation was her setting up other people for scoring opportunities and I think she did a fantastic job of that. Multiple girls with hat tricks and a lot of different girls scoring really enabled our offense to work well despite the fact that they had her in a face guard."
 
Up next: The Owls continue their homestand Sunday against New Hampshire at 1 p.m.