Men's Box Score
Women's Box Score
BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford women's lacrosse team gave No. 1 CCBC-Catonsville all it could handle, leading by as many as two goals, 10-8 in the second half, but ultimately fell, 18-17, on Thursday at Harford Stadium. The Harford men's lacrosse team also faced the No. 1 team in the country in CCBC-Essex but did not fare as well, falling 19-5.
Sophomore Melissa Warczynski (Street, Md./North Harford) had a career-day for the Fighting Owls (5-4, 2-3 MDJUCO), tallying nine points (8g, 1a), while Emily Reese paced the Cardinals (10-0, 4-0 MDJUCO) with seven points (5g, 2a) and Kara Cashen and Ashley Edwards added four goals each.
Catonsville jumped to a 2-0 lead less than three minutes into the game, but Harford was not about to give the nation-leading Cardinals an easy game. The teams traded two goals each over the next eight minutes leaving Catonsville with a two-goal lead, 4-2, with 19:17 remaining in the first half before Warczynski contributed on two straight goals, scoring on a free position shot and assisting on sophomore Tori Pyzik's (Bel Air, Md./John Carroll/Oregon) goal to knot the score at four with 10:29 left.
The Cardinals answered with two straight goals of their own, to regain the two-goal lead, 6-4, but Harford countered with two more goals and each team would score once more to take a 7-7 tie into the break.
Harford took its first lead of the game at the start of the second half, as they were awarded the draw due to a yellow card on the Catonsville coach, and it took just 12 seconds for sophomore Nicole Miller (Aberdeen, Md./Aberdeen) to feed Warczynski, giving Harford an 8-7 advantage.
Catonsville would tie the score just 33 seconds later as Cashen fired an unassisted shot past the Harford keeper, but two straight Owl scores would give Harford its biggest lead of the game, 10-8, with 25:10 remaining.
The Cardinals would continue to pester the Owls, tying the game at 10 and 11 goals before seeing the final lead change of the game, 12-11 with 17:54 left. The Catonsville goal began a three-goal run but Warczynski single-handedly eliminated the deficit with two goals of her own to tie the score at 13 with 15:38 left in the second half.
Four Catonsville goals in a row gave the Cardinals the largest lead of the game, 17-13, with just over 10 minutes left, but Harford still had some fight left, trimming the deficit to two goals, 17-15 by the 7:38 mark, before Reese added the eventual game-winner at 5:09. One minute later Harford brought the lead back down to two, but Catonsville held the Owls without a shot until the final minute as freshman Jaclyn Hall (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) converted with 43 seconds left.
The Cardinals won the ensuing draw and played keep away to escape a major upset victory with an 18-17 decision.
Harford outshot Catonsville, 36-32 and controlled 23 draws to the Cardinals' 14, while Catonsville held a 19-17 advantage on ground balls and Brittany Frankenfeld totaled 10 saves in 60:00, while freshmen Stefanie Saul (Aberdeen, Md./Aberdeen) and Kaitlyn Hall (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) combined for eight, each with four in 30:00.
On the men's side, the Fighting Owls (6-4, 0-1 MDJUCO) struggled from the start, scoring its first goal with 7:00 left in the first half after Essex had built a 5-0 lead, as sophomore Branden Kenny (Edgewood, Md./Edgewood) fed freshman Matt Vickers (Baltimore, Md./Loyola).
The Knights (9-0, 3-0 MDJUCO) built an 13-1 lead by the half and would hold the Owls scoreless for 40:06 until the 11:54 mark in the fourth quarter, which saw freshman Ben Wilson (Bel Air, Md./Fallston) notch an unassisted tally and give Essex a lopsided, 18-2 lead.
Essex added one more goal before Harford finished the game on a 3-0 run on the way to the 19-5 Essex rout.
Wilson (1g, 1a) and Kenny (2a) each tallied two points for Harford, while Ben Yancheski and Adam Dahms added three goals each for Essex and Brandon Kendrick led all scorers with five points (1g, 4a) on the night.
The Knights outshot Harford 57-39, but Harford won the battle at the X, taking 17 faceoffs to Essex's 11. Freshmen Tim Kemena (West Chester, Pa./West Chester Henderson) and Mike Miller (Parkville, Md./Parkville) split time for Harford, each making five saves in 30:00, while the Essex goalies totaled 18 saves in 60:00, Tyler Powell stopping 11 shots in 30:00, Eric Biller making two saves in 15:00 and Alex Williamson accounting for five in 15:00.
The Fighting Owls men will be put to the test again on Saturday as they host No. 2 Nassau at 2:00 p.m., while the Fighting Owls women return to action on Monday when they travel to CCBC-Essex for a 7:00 p.m. game.
