The book for Victor: Emily Hawryschuk (4g), Kaci Messier (2g-4a), Lucy Haggerty (1g), Delaney Schottland (1g-1a), Bridget Flynn (1g), Brenna Fosco (1g) Goaltending: Sydney DiBerardinis 3s/8ga (50 mins).

The book for Thomas: Nicole Voci (3g), Emily Glagolev (3a), Mary Soures (3g), Emily Tomei (2g), Mackenzie Travis (1a) Goaltending: Haley Barrett 7s/10ga (50 mins).

2016-05-07 - Kaci Messier and Emily Hawryschuk were major factors in the Victor comeback against Webster Thomas.  Victor outscored Thomas 7-3 in the second half and didn't take the lead until seven minutes into the second half.

Thomas played an impressive first half; particularly at defense.  The Titan defense was stellar in the first 25 minutes and still remarkable for the entire contest.  Senior Allison Barnes and junior Grace Lagoner repeatedly checked the ball out of sticks, interecepted passes and turned back driving opponents.  Goalie Haley Barrett finished with seven saves, including a key save when the game was still tied.  Sophomore Keyla Bay and junior Julia Nicolosi rounded out the Titan close defense and also had strong games.

The skill of Thomas' defense takes nothing away from the offensive skill of the Blue Devils; whom, even in the face of tough defense, kept scoring goals.  Hawryschuk scored the first three goals for Victor, even in the face of two or three defenders.  In the second half, Hawryschuk was slowed down by the Titan defense, but that meant shifting resources away from Messier.  She capitalized and became a force in the second half.  Messier finished with 4 draw controls and 2g-4a for the Blue Devils.

Thomas scored the first three goals of the game with junior Nicole Voci scoring all three back to back to back.  The first was a wind around drive behind the cage.  The second was a drive by Emily Glagolev where she found Voci open after the slide.  The third was another unassisted drive around the back of the cage.  With 18:45 remaining, Thomas led 3-0.  Victor came right back and scored three of the their own.  All three goals were scored by Hawryschuk.  She scored the first was a slow clear where she took the ball straight down the middle.  Her second goal started off a save by Barrett that turned into a loose ball on the crease.  The third was a similar to the first, but off a set offense. Thomas scored the final goal of the half to take the lead into the break.  Glagolev took a shot at the goal that missed wide and Mary Soures picked the ball out of the air and came back around the side for the goal.  Thomas led 4-3 at halftime.

Although the first half was back and forth, Victor played a stronger second half.  They began to win draw controls more consistently and kept the ball away from the Titans.  A key factor in the change was Victor began to control the pace of the game.  They controlled the ball for long stretches of times.  When Thomas did get the ball they were impulsive.  Although this resulted in a couple goals, the Titans only controlled the ball for about 5 minutes of the entire half.

Thomas scored the opening goal to go up by two goals early in the half.  The goal began at midfield when Emily Tornei made a strong second effort on a loose ball to give the Titans control.  The ball was pressed up field and Soures scored on a fast-break (assist from Glagolev).  After Soures' goal, Victor scored four unanswered goals and kept the ball on their side of the field for five minutes.  Lucy Haggerty scored off an 8 meter by Messier (she passed to the open crease).  Two minutes later Delaney Schottland found Hawryschuk open on the crease to tie the game again at 5-5.  Messier scored her first goal of the game with a drive from behind to give the Blue Devils their first lead.

They increased the lead with Messier assisting Bridget Flynn.  Flynn also finished the game with four draws for the Blue Devils.  Thomas called a time-out to try and slow down the pace.  Coming out of the timeout they scored a fast-break goal with Tomei scoring and Glagolev assisting.  Due to a clock error, Victor scored at the same clock time on a fast-break off the draw (Brenna Fosco grabbed the loose ball and scored).  Soures' third goal brought the game back within one with a loose ball on the crease that she turned into a goal.  The Blue Devils scored back to back to pull out of reach with Messier scoring unassisted and Schottland scoring off a free position shot.  The Titans scored the final goal with another fast break (Tomei from Mackenzie Travis).

The Blue Devils began their slow stall with about 9:00 remaining in the second half and kept it in place for most of the remaining time.  They scored a few goals when opportunity struck, but they basically stopped going to the cage.  Thomas, when they did get possession, often went quickly to the cage.  This resulted in their final two goals, but also a number of missed shots.  Sophomore goalie Sydney DiBerardinis finished with only 1 save recorded.