On Thursday, the Brown Bears scored 22 goals against Central Connecticut — the most they have scored in a single game this season.
But when the Seawolves came to town on Tuesday, March 22, the Bears couldn’t score more than three.
The No. 5 Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team crushed Brown 15-3 on Wednesday. Midfielders Ellie Masera and Kyla Zapolski both secured a hat trick and combined for eight points. Attacker Kailyn Hart led the team with six points and a career-high four assists.
The Seawolves dominated nearly every key statistic. They controlled the majority of draws (12-8), secured 17 ground balls compared to Brown’s 11, and out-shot the Bears by 16 (34-18). They also finished with 19 clears to tie their season high.
Most notably, the Seawolves took complete control over Brown’s offense, limiting the Bears to just nine shots on goal. On the defensive end, defender Haley Dillon caused a season-high four turnovers. As a whole, the Seawolves caused 11 of Brown’s 19 turnovers by the final horn.
It came as no surprise when Masera opened Stony Brook’s scoring just a minute and a half into play. The recent America East Offensive Player of the Week recipient’s game-opening goal on Wednesday was her 24th of the season.
The Seawolves struggled to find their offensive footing in the first quarter. While Stony Brook did manage to take six shots on goal in the opening 15 minutes, Brown goalkeeper Erin Tucker blocked four of them. Tucker finished with 11 saves despite losing by a lopsided final score.
Stony Brook goalkeeper Kameron Halsall made her first start of the season and spent the entire game in the cage for the Seawolves. She finished with six saves.
Stony Brook’s offense received a boost with just 20 seconds left in the opening quarter. Zapolski found her way onto the scoreboard with her sixth goal of the season after receiving a pass from Hart. She later scored her seventh and eighth goals of 2022 in the second and third quarters to secure the hat trick.
Zapolski’s last-second goal in the first quarter knocked the wind out of Brown. The Bears were able to hold the Seawolves in check throughout the first, but the rest of the game was a different story.
Within less than a minute of starting the second quarter, the Seawolves had scored again. This time, it came from the stick of midfielder Rayna Sabella. The shot gave Sabella her tenth goal of the season, making her the fourth Seawolf to achieve double digit goals in 2022.
Five more Seawolves would follow in Sabella’s footsteps by the end of play. Midfielder Siobhan Raferty found an open shot five minutes into the second quarter for her sixteenth goal of the season. Midfielder Jaden Hampel followed closely behind with her first goal of the day with eight minutes left in the second.
Hampel went back to back with her second goal of the day as the game entered halftime. Her multi-goal performance puts her at eight goals in 2022.
Attacker Jesse Arline cashed in during the third quarter with a pair of goals of her own. It was her first multi-goal game of the season.
To put it simply, Stony Brook was red hot.
Brown, on the other hand, was held scoreless for the first 27 minutes of play. After surrendering six turnovers to the Seawolves in the first quarter, the Bears’ offensive woes only worsened. Brown’s turnovers climbed to 11 by halftime. By the time the Bears had finally made it onto the scoreboard, Stony Brook was leading by 6.
Stony Brook’s momentum was unstoppable by the fourth quarter. Masera secured a hat trick with 13 minutes left to play. She has now reached a hat trick in all but one game started this year.
Midfielder Alexandra Fusco joined Masera with a fourth quarter goal to extend Stony Brook’s lead to 14. The freshman tallied her third goal of the season while also capping off Stony Brook’s blowout.
Stony Brook continues to lead the America East in shot percentage (49%) as it heads home to face Vermont in its first conference game of 2022 on Saturday, March 26.
