Eagles stay perfect, win two Sunday
Unbeaten Winthrop (5-0) won a away-home doubleheader on Sunday with victories over Davidson and St. Francis.
In the nightcap, four Eagles recorded hat tricks as the Eagles remained unbeaten with a 16-7 victory over St. Francis.
Katie Clark, Shannon Gallagher, Abigail Blevins and Kristen Shriver each tallied three goals. Shriver also added two assists to lead the team. Hayley Krause led the team with seven draw controls while Clark picked up four ground balls to lead the Eagles. Alaina Girani had another strong performance in goal, allowing only six goals and making 10 saves.
“We had a very balanced attack today which is going to be key for us this year,” head coach John Sung said. “We were missing a couple kids because of injury but we had people step up and really contribute today.”
Alexis Linhardt got the Eagles on the board less than two minutes into the contest but then tired legs may have gotten the best of the Eagles as St. Francis scored the next three to take a 3-1 lead with 20:29 left in the half. Winthrop didn’t stay down long as Abigail Blevins and Kristen Shriver each scored to tie the game at 3-3 with 18:56 on the clock.
The Red Flash regained a one-goal edge with 16:46 remaining but didn’t get another tally for the remainder of the half. Winthrop rattled off five-straight goals to end the half. Katie Clark scored three of the Eagle goals while Shannon Gallagher and Blevins each added one to send the Eagles into the half up 8-4.
Winthrop started the second half where they left off the first as Danielle Ellis scored with 26:06 left in the contest. After St. Francis scored less than two minutes later, Winthrop again went on a big run, scoring five unanswered goals. Shriver and Gallagher each had two in the stretch while Paige Jenkins scored the other.
St. Francis scored its second goal of the half with 8:04 remaining, but the Eagles were able to hit a running clock with goals from Blevins and Alexis Linhardt with 3:08 left. The Red Flash tallied one more goal with just over a minute left to reach the final score.
The Eagles dominated in shots 34-21 and won both the ground ball and draw control battles 18-15 and 15-10 respectively.
Winthrop will use this week to prepare for a road trip into Virginia as the Eagles will face VCU on Friday and William & Mary on Saturday.
▪ In the earlier match at Davidson, Winthrop limited Davidson to only one second-half goal as the Eagles downed the Wildcats 8-5.
The Eagles had a very strong start offensively as Davidson barely touched the ball in the first five minutes. Allie Yeager got Winthrop’s first two goals on the board, giving the Eagles the early 2-0 edge with 26:45 on the clock. Less than a minute later, Alexis Linhardt put the Eagles up 3-0.
Winthrop’s offensive went cold for more than 15 minutes after the Linhardt goal as Davidson slowly worked back to tie the game with 11:37 left in the first half. Alexis Linhardt put the Eagles back ahead 4-3 with 8:41 remaining. The Wildcats were able to grab momentum going into the second half, scoring with 21 seconds left to send the game into the break at 4-4.
The Eagles got the offense going again early in the second half as Logan McCarthy gave Winthrop the lead back with a free-position goal 2:35 into the half. Winthrop then picked up a goal from Katie Clark and two goals from Shannon Gallagher to go up 8-4 with 14:50 left in the contest.
Winthrop looked primed to shutout the Wildcats in the second half before Kendall Thielemann scored with less than two minutes to go to pick up Davidson’s only goal of the second half.
Gallagher’s two goals came on five shots while Yeager netted her two goals on two shots and Alexis Linhardt scored on two of her four shots. Clark picked up the team’s lone assist of the game on Gallagher’s first tally.
The Eagles limited Davidson to only 12 shots total and only nine on goal. Alaina Girani tallied four saves in the victory.
This story was originally published February 28, 2016 at 9:53 PM with the headline "Eagles stay perfect, win two Sunday."