Rowan’s lacrosse team celebrated Senior Night with a 17-3 win over Farmingdale State on Wednesday, April 19. The team recognized 10 seniors in a pregame celebration with their family members.
“It was awesome because we kind of talked about playing for something bigger than ourselves, like playing for the program,” senior captain Julianna Corson said. “So I think everything the team does is just to better the program so it was really nice to catch the win.”
Once the game started, the team was unstoppable offensively. In the first 52 seconds, senior Jamie Cutrera received a pass from Corson to score her first goal of the game.
On the very next draw, fellow senior Erin Renshaw found the ball and sprinted to the net for a goal and helped give Rowan the exemplary start they wanted.
“Before the game, we all emphasize how we want to start the game together and end the game together and I think we fully executed that today,” Renshaw said.
A big component of Rowan’s early success was their goalkeeping. Rowan’s two senior goalkeepers, Reilly Shaup and Mel Rodgers, split the time in the cage. Head Coach Lindsay Delaney discussed the importance of having both goalkeepers play on Senior Night.
“Senior days are always tough when you have one position and you have two seniors,” Delaney said. “Obviously, [Shaup] earned the start this time. [Rodgers,] she’s not your traditional backup, she could be a start at a lot of schools. So I think it’s a great friendship they have, it’s a great connection that they have together and I’m really happy for both of them.”
It wouldn’t be an entertaining game without the Corson sisters connecting during a play. Elaina Corson already had one goal tallied, and on the next possession she received a pass from her older sister Julianna Corson for her second of the game, increasing Rowan’s lead to 4-0.
Goalkeeper Shaup backed her teammates’ offense by keeping Farmingdale State off the board during the last minutes of the first quarter. Farmingdale State would eventually get on the board with their first goal in the second quarter while still being down 9-1.
Rowan’s offense did not let Farmingdale’s first goal intimidate them throughout the remainder of the game, however, as they scored five more goals in the second quarter.
Sophomore Molly Green, who usually finds ground balls and interceptions, scored her 24th goal of the season to put the Profs up by 10 early in the second. Renshaw and Michaela Donnelly finished the game with a hat trick each, while Elaina Corson led the team with four goals.
“I think there are obviously things you can improve on, like capitalizing on mistakes and things like that,” Julianna Corson said. “But I think we did a lot of good things today and everyone was able to get some really good looks in today.”
For the Profs, this victory is important because they are two weeks away from the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) tournament. Coach Delaney is ready to prepare the team for the tough games ahead in the tournament in May.
“We want to get everyone as involved as we can, keep the ball moving on the attack, look to finish and get those ground balls,” Delaney said. “I think you see Molly Green stepping it up every game, she’s got a huge factor during draw circles and transitionally. It’s something we’re focusing on and [Green]’s focusing on as well.”
With the team really starting to click at the tail end of the season, Renshaw believes that as long as the team locks in, they have the potential to be unbeatable.
“For us, playing the whole 60 minutes together has just been our theme this year, and I think that once we’re on our game we are unstoppable,” Renshaw said. “So in huge games, we tend to get a little bit shaky, we’ve never stopped playing hard, but I guess zoning and focusing is going to be a big thing for us going into some of these tough games.”
The Profs will finish their season off with two away games before hosting Montclair State in the regular season finale on Saturday, April 29.
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