PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - - The Wilmington University women's lacrosse team had the deficit as close as two goals in the second half before Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference North Division leading Philadelphia ran away with a 14-7 victory at Alumni Field on Wednesday.
Liz Case opened the scoring in the second half for the Wildcats (2-13, 2-7 CACC) with her first goal of the game to close the gap to 5-3 with 28:09 remaining in regulation, but Philadelphia (12-4, 9-0 CACC) rattled off four straight and eight of the next nine goals overall to take control of the game.
The Wildcats were neck and neck with the Rams to start the first half, responding with a goal every time Philadelphia got on the board. Rebekah McCurry scored her 24th goal of the season on a free position shot for the Wildcats' first goal of the game, tying the score at 1-1 with 26:44 to play. McCurry responded again following a Rams' goal, taking a pass from Case to score 25 seconds after Philadelphia did to retie the game at 2-2 with 24:50 left.
From there the Rams scored three straight, including their final tally with 33 seconds showing on the clock in the first half to take a 5-2 lead into the halftime break.
Case put Wilmington on the board first in the second half, scoring her 15th goal of the year to make it 5-3 but that would be as close as the visitors could get it for the rest of the contest.
Megan Keffer broke up the pair of four-goal runs by the Rams, scoring her 18th of the year on a free position shot with 18:32 to play, but the Rams sored four more to stretch the game out to 13-4.
Jaclyn Hall got on the board with her only goal of the game at the 10:58 mark, taking a pass from Molly Taylor to bring the score to 13-5. Case closed the Wildcat scoring with back-to-back goals in a matter of 13 seconds, first taking a pass from Brittany Rhodes for her 16th goal of the year before heading back down the field after Rachel Burley secured the draw control and scored the hat trick with 7:31 remaining in the game.
Wilmington picked up the ensuing draw control with 7:21 to play, but could only register three shots the rest of the contest before Philadelphia ran the clock to the final seconds.
Case led the Wildcats with her three goals and an assist for four points on Wednesday and is now six goals and 11 assists from 100 for her career in each category. She is already the all-time assist leader in program history.
McCurry tallied two goals while picking up a team high four controls and Keffer and Jaclyn Hall scored a goal each. Goaltender Kaitlyn Hall, Ali Kern, Sarah Lindler and Rhodes all finished with a team high three ground balls on the afternoon.
Kaitlyn Hall played all 60 minutes in goal, making eight saves for the Wildcats. Counterpart Kristen Moran needed to make six saves in goal for the Rams in the victory.
Wilmington has a pair of games remaining in the 2013 season, closing the CACC portion of its schedule on Saturday with a road game at Post. The Wildcats will then pay its final game of the year on April 23 at Delaware State under the lights. Saturday's game is set to begin at 1:00 p.m.