After two consecutive losses, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team returned home and picked up their first win of the season against Marist on Sunday afternoon in a 20-9 victory. After the Bearcats gained the upper hand in the first half of the game, the Red Foxes struggled to match BU’s offensive pace from there on out as BU emerged victorious on its home turf.

“[I’m] just really excited for our team,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “I know they’ve been putting in a lot of work and things finally clicked today.”

Marist (0-2) won the opening draw control and got on the board to take a quick 1-0 lead. A few minutes later, junior midfielder Abigail Carroll charged into Marist’s box and nailed a goal for BU (1-2) to knot the score at one. Binghamton maintained this momentum by winning the proceeding draw control, with senior attack Madison Murphy scoring only 19 seconds after the Bearcats’ previous goal. Murphy followed this up with a free position goal to give BU a 3-1 lead.

“It was exciting to see both sides of the ball really perform well and execute in a way that I knew they were capable of,” Allen said.

The fight for control continued in the first period with freshman midfielder Mia Forte scoring her first career goal to advance BU’s lead to 4-2. Then, Carroll scored two more goals to give BU a 6-2 lead at the end of the first period.

“We’ve been working on some adjustments, especially on our offensive end just to generate more production, and I felt like today they were really hungry for it,” Allen said. “We’re excited to play … with a lot more confidence.”

In the second period, the Red Foxes scored three goals to close the gap to make it a 6-5 game. Eventually, Murphy stopped the bleeding and scored BU’s seventh goal. Binghamton went on to score seven unanswered goals for the remainder of the period. The tenacity of BU’s defense kept the Red Foxes at bay while goals from sophomore attack Carla Curth, senior attack Gabriella Meli, junior attack Olivia Muscolino, Scheidel and Carroll brought the final score of the half to 13-5 in favor of Binghamton.

“We knew who we need the ball in the hands of,” Allen said. “[Carroll] obviously today came up with a fire lit underneath her, and [I] was really excited for her to help bring that spark to the offensive end.”

During the second half of the match, Binghamton continued to find the back of the net. Senior midfielder Hayley Weltner made it a 14-5 game, marking her first goal of the season. Soon after, Marist picked up the ball, drove it down the field and launched the ball into BU’s net to break up Binghamton’s run. However, goals from Muscolino, Weltner and Curth allowed BU to maintain a 17-6 lead going into the fourth period.

“It was playing more aggressive on the defensive end to generate more offensive possessions,” Allen said. “Then I think just kind of going back to what we knew was working at the beginning of the game for our offense.”

After a quick goal from Marist to kick off the fourth period to make it 17-7, BU continued to maintain control of the match. The Bearcats utilized good passing and speed to clear the ball into Marist territory, resulting in three more goals from Muscolino, sophomore midfielder Emma Blloshmi and Carroll respectively. The Red Foxes managed to put two more goals on the board, but it wasn’t enough as the Bearcats won 20-9.

The Bearcats will head back on the road this Wednesday, Feb. 21 as they face off against Colgate. First draw control is set for 5 p.m. at Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium in Hamilton, New York.