The Binghamton women’s lacrosse team faced off against in-state opposition in Marist on Saturday. Despite dropping their last eight meetings with the Red Foxes, the Bearcats pounced on the hosts early, securing an 18-7 victory.

“I think the fast start definitely gave us the momentum that carried throughout the rest of the game,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “To get the first seven goals on the board in the game today was awesome to see by our offense, and just kind of showed that they were really playing cohesively and gelling early on.”

After winning the opening draw control and drawing a penalty, BU (4-4) wasted no time getting on the board. Sophomore attack Marisa Tancredi ripped a shot that found the back of Marist’s (2-4) net off of a feed from senior attack Kenna Newman. Newman then followed up with a goal of her own less than a minute later. The Bearcats’ offensive outburst would continue for the remainder of the first period, with the visitors grabbing six more by its end.

Both sophomore midfielder Abigail Carroll and junior midfielder Kristen Scheidel added two goals apiece, while junior midfielder Hayley Weltner and sophomore attack Olivia Muscolino had one each to their names. Binghamton outshot the hosts 12-4 in the first quarter and held them to just one goal, giving the Bearcats a commanding 8-1 lead heading into the second.

“We just talked about [scoring early] a lot throughout practice,” Allen said. “So the way that we’ve been training lately is stringing together good plays back-to-back, and both our offense and defense were able to do that well today.”

Muscolino and Scheidel opened the scoring in the second, adding consecutive goals less than two minutes into play. Despite the early goals, BU stalled on offense, remaining scoreless for the a majority of the frame. The Red Foxes, however, answered with two goals of their own to bring the score to 10-3. Just before the half ended, the Bearcats added two goals in the final minute from Newman and Muscolino to put them up 12-3 going into halftime.

“I think we’ve seen [the defense] improving every single game as a unit,” Allen said. “We know Marist has a couple big threats out there that we were able to at least limit touches of theirs today, and I thought we had really good focus on the defensive end.”

Coming out of the break, Binghamton struck first as Tancredi found the twine off of a man-up opportunity. Marist responded with two consecutive goals, but the visitors tallied back-to-back goals to hold a 15-5 advantage heading into the final frame.

In the final quarter, BU held onto its lead, scoring three more and allowing just two to close out a comfortable 18-7 win. Muscolino led the team with four goals, while Carroll, Newman and Scheidel all had hat tricks with three goals apiece. Tancredi and junior attack Madison Murphy each added two to the Bearcats’ final tally. As a team, Binghamton totaled 35 shots compared to the Red Foxes’ 20, and scooped up 24 ground balls to the hosts’ 13. Additionally, the visitors forced 18 Marist turnovers while they only turned the ball over 10 times.

“I think a really well-balanced attack is critical for your team’s overall success,” Allen said. “We had seven different goal scorers, and six of those having multiple points today. So I think it’s just a testament to how that group’s been working and trying to become more consistent each and every game. And you know, today, it was nice to see those players have some success against a good quality opponent.”

The Bearcats will travel to Cornell for their next game on Tuesday, March 14. First draw control is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, New York.