Box Score SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Notre Dame Falcons rallied to erase a three goal halftime deficit at Normandy Field on Friday afternoon, but their comeback effort fell one goal short, in a 10-9 loss to West Virginia Wesleyan on senior day.
The loss for the Falcons (4-3, 0-1 MEC) came in their 2016 Mountain East Conference opener, and was just their second loss of the season at home, while the win for the Bobcats (4-5, 1-0 MEC) snapped a three game road losing streak.
Prior to the start of the game, the Falcons celebrated Senior Day, honoring their three seniors,
Lauren Ragsdale,
Brooke Czarnecki and
Vanessa Delano.
The Bobcats scored the game's first goal, just over 30 seconds into the contest, before NDC answered with a pair of goals from Czarnecki over the next two minutes of action to take a 2-1 advantage with 27:02 left in the first period.
However, the Bobcats then caught fire, scoring five consecutive goals over the next 19 minutes of action, and took their largest lead of the afternoon (6-2) at the 8:28-mark.
Darbie Barkman scored NDC's last goal of the first period with 2:37 left, before the Falcons rallied at the half to get back into the contest.
Victoria Martin scored NDC's first goal of the half, and did so on a free position shot just 23 seconds into the period, which was the start of a remarkable 5-1 run for the Falcons at the beginning of the period. That run also included goals from Czarnecki,
Ashlee Boyko and two from Barkman, who scored with 14:58 left in the game to give the Falcons an 8-7 lead.
Wesleyan scored a goal a little less than two minutes later to tie the game, before the Falcons regained the lead as
Halie Taylor scored with 12:43 to play, but that turned out to be Notre Dame's last goal of the contest.
The Bobcats tied the game with 10:28 left in the half, and Katie Kennedy scored the eventual game winning goal with 4:34 left in the game.
Notre Dame had a couple of chances to win the game inside the final four minutes of action. Martin had a shot turned away by Wesleyan goalie Lauren Granville with 3:44 left, and with less than a minute of play, the Falcons tried to clear the ball out of their offensive zone, but had a pass intercepted near the middle of the field, and the Bobcats were able to hang on for the win.
Barkman and Czarnecki led the Falcons with three goals each, while Czarnecki added five ground balls and three draw controls, and Barkman came away with five ground balls as well. Boyko had a goal and four ground balls, while Martin added a goal to go along with three draw controls and
Kait Shannon had a nice game defensively, causing four turnovers on the day. Ragsdale had a nice game in net for the Falcons, coming away with 10 saves on the afternoon.
The Falcons will be in action again on Sunday, April 3, when they hit the road for an MEC contest against Urbana. The contest is scheduled for 1 p.m. start.
