Drew Celebrates Senior Day With Playoff Berth

MADISON, N.J. - Drew women's lacrosse pulled out a high scoring affair with the Susquehanna Crusaders, 19-10, on Saturday afternoon.  The win clinches a spot in the Landmark Conference playoffs as the Rangers celebrated Senior Day with a win. 

Drew trailed 6-5 with 12 minutes left in the first half before going on a 6-0 run and dominating the second half.  Stacie Brown scored five goals for the Rangers and Cara Jeffries added 4 and two assists.  After a shaky first half, the Ranger defense stepped up in the second to allow just three shots.  Drew is now 8-5, 3-1 in the Landmark Conference with one more game to play.  Lindsey Perno and Meghan Santaniello scored in their final home regular season game at Ranger Stadium and Jen Schoepflin led that defensive resurgence in the second half.

Drew struggled in the first part of the game, falling behind 2-0 before Brown and Morgan Kenney scored to tie up with five minutes gone.  The high scoring first half continued as Erin McGarrigle netted her third of the game with just under ten minutes gone.  Kenney would again tie it up before Brown would give the Rangers their first lead with a free position goal at 18:23.  It was a short-lived lead as the Crusaders scored immediately following with an FPS goal of their own from Sarah Frankowiak.  Heather Linton followed with two goals surrounding Kenney's third to give Susquehanna a 6-5 lead with 12 minutes left.  The Rangers responded to the challenge by rattling off the next six goals to build 11-6 lead.  After Jeffries had tied it with a nice spin move near the net, Lindsey Perno (right) grabbed the goal that would put the Rangers ahead for good with ten minutes left in the slow moving first half.  Jeffries had found Perno high, coming off a screen and the senior finished well into the corner for her first of the game.  Up 7-6, Drew piled on as Jeffries scored the next two, the first an unassisted effort after a clever crease roll and the second from Stacie Brown's assist.  Then Brown got one of her own before Perno set up Samantha Silver.

Susquehanna pulled two back to make it a nervy 11-8 going into the break.  The Rangers put the game to bed early in the second half as they scored the first four of the half for a 15-8 lead as four different first-years scored: Brown, Brook Connell, Sloane Coles and Jeffries.  Susquehanna scored two quick goals to cut the lead to 15-10 before Meghan Santaniello got on the board with ten minutes left to end the Crusader rally.  Brown and Connell each added another before Lindsey Perno scored the final goal of the game, fittingly.  On defense, Schoepflin helped hold Susquehanna's top two scorers to just one goal and one assist combined.

The Rangers have a non-conference tussle with Stevens on Wednesday night before they head down to Catholic for a game that could decide the conference.  The Rangers are 3-1, tied with Goucher while the Cardinals are 4-0.  If Drew wins each team would be 4-1 in the conference, otherwise Catholic would have home field throughout the Landmark playoffs.