Breglia scores five, leads Bulldogs past Pioneers, 11-5, Sunday

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Rookie Caitlin Breglia (Long Beach, N.Y.) scored a career-high five goals while sophomore Jess DeMeo (Mount Sinai, N.Y.) added a hat trick to lead the Bryant University women's lacrosse team to an 11-5 road win over Sacred Heart Sunday.

The Bulldogs (6-4, 2-0 Northeast Conference) opened the game on a 5-0 run and outscored the Pioneers (3-8, 1-1), 8-1, in the first half en route to their second-consecutive league victory. Senior defender Carly Cronin (Feeding Hills, Mass.) picked up a game-high five ground balls while senior linemate Molly Martin (Island Park, N.Y.) paced the side with three caused turnovers (3 ground balls).

Emily Kick was Sacred Heart's top scorer with a pair of tallies, and the Bulldogs limited top threat Caitlin Delaney to just a goal and an assist.

Freshman Leah Nocera (Westwood, Mass.) got the scoring started less than 90 seconds into the contest with a free position goal before Breglia followed up with back-to-back unassisted scores to give the visitors a 3-0 lead less than three minutes into Sunday's contest.

Less than a minute later, DeMeo got her first of the afternoon off a feed from senior Ali Cardinal (Schenectady, N.Y.), and Breglia would complete her third hat trick of the year with 22:51 still to play in the opening stanza for the 5-0 advantage.

A Liana Doyle tally with 22:21 to go was the only interruption to eight Black and Gold goals in the opening 30 minutes, as DeMeo scores would sandwich a tally from Lauren Britton (Monmouth Beach, N.J.) to send the teams into the halftime break with the scoreboard reading 8-1.

Delaney registered her only marker of the day 1:12 into the second half off a free position shot, but three-straight Bryant scores drove the margin to 11-2 with 12:46 remaining.

Sacred Heart would score three more times, the final two coming from Kick, but it wasn't enough to make up the difference in the 11-5 final.

The Bulldogs won nearly every statistical battle, including shots (31-16), ground balls (22-19) and draw controls (10-8). Martin and Cardinal each finished with two draw wins to lead the Black and Gold.

Bryant limited the Pioneers to just a 13-of-24 mark on the clear, with the Bulldogs going 16-of-20 on the day. SHU goalie Paige Hammick made nine saves in the loss, while Bulldog junior Samantha Santeramo (Wantagh, N.Y.) turned away six.

The Bulldogs return to the field Friday, April 14, hosting Central Connecticut at the Track & Turf Complex at 4:00 p.m.