For the second game in a row, Emma DiPatri (‘24) capped a dramatic comeback with the game-winning goal, scoring with 15 seconds left in the first half of the second overtime to vault the Drew University women’s lacrosse team to a 9-8 victory at Kean University in a non-conference matchup Wednesday, April 6.
DiPatri scooped up the rebound of her own missed shot and quickly rifled it past Cougar goalie Nicole Peters, ending a defensive standoff in which neither side had yielded a goal over the previous 12 minutes. Her goal also capped a 7-0 run by Drew, which trailed 8-2 midway through the third quarter. DiPatri also assisted on Drew’s first two goals in the fourth quarter.
Just four days earlier, DiPatri scored the game-winner with two seconds left in a 15-14 Landmark Conference victory at Elizabethtown, where the Rangers erased a five-goal fourth-quarter deficit. DiPatri has now had a hand in all three of Drew’s last-second or game-ending goals, as she also assisted Jenna Draney (‘22) (on a game-winner versus Stockton with one second left back on March 5.
Drew and Kean also went to overtime in their last meeting, a 10-9 Ranger victory on April 3, 2019. Additionally, the Rangers went to a second overtime for the first time since a 15-14 triple-OT win over Connecticut College on April 17, 2012.
Lizzy Barrett (’24), Ella Champigny (‘24), and Kendall Hartt (‘22) scored two goals apiece for the Rangers (8-3) while Anna Horne (‘23) made 12 saves. Meliha Emini (‘22) contributed with four caused turnovers and four draw controls. Champigny scored Drew’s first two goals and it was a 2-2 game with 1:03 left in the first quarter. However, that’s when the Cougars used a 6-0 run spanning three quarters to assume their 8-2 lead with 7:37 left in the third period. Barrett sparked Drew’s comeback, scoring with 6:48 left in the third quarter to make it 8-3. Hartt followed up with 4:56 on the clock and it was an 8-4 game heading into the fourth quarter.
Emini and Draney kept the rally going early in the fourth quarter, scoring 1:21 apart off assists from DiPatri to make it 8-6 with 12:32 remaining. Barrett drew the Rangers to within one with 10:07 remaining, and neither side would score again until Hartt tied it with 3:26 to go. Kean would win the ensuing draw and promptly earned back-to-back free-position attempts. However, both shots were off the mark, and the Cougars would misfire on three more shots inside the final 15 seconds, sending the game into the first six-minute sudden-death overtime period. Neither side managed a shot in the first extra session. In the second OT, Kean won the opening draw before hitting the post with a shot. Catherine DiPatri (‘24) picked up the ground ball before her sister did the rest at the other end of the field.
Drew returns to Landmark Conference action on Saturday, April 9, when they visit Juniata College at noon.
