WEST ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (7-5, 4-4 GLIAC) scored five goals in the first five minutes and never trailed, outlasting Davenport (3-9, 1-7 GLIAC) 21-16 on Monday afternoon at the West St. Paul Regional Sports Center. Sophomore
Maddie Hentges scored a game-high eight points (5g, 3a) and became the first player in team history to reach 100 career points in the victory.
Concordia hits the road for the final time of the regular season this weekend, heading to #24 Tiffin on Friday evening for a 6 p.m. (CT) draw in Ohio before heading to #13 Grand Valley State on Sunday at 11 a.m. (CT) in Michigan.
The 37 combined goals between the teams is a new program record, and although the scoring margin was the same in the teams' first meeting on March 29 just a couple weeks ago in Michigan, the pace was drastically different as CSP won the first matchup 13-8. It's the fourth time in the first two years of the program that Concordia has topped 20 goals.
In addition to topping 100 career points, Hentges' points (8) and assists (3) are tied for the second most in a game in team history. She's already scored 51 points this year, two shy of her single season record of 53 set during her freshman year in CSP's inaugural season in 2017. Her 16 assists this year is just one shy of senior
Kallie LaValle's record of 17 set last year as well.
Three players scored at least four goals for Concordia, as freshman
Raelyn Korinek netted five while sophomore
Alina Boyce had four goals and an assist. Sophomore
Kailey Heinl added a five point performance including matching Hentges' three assist total while LaValle had four points with a pair of goals and assists.
In the middle, Heinl, junior
Sheala Osborne and freshman
Margot Coomes each had four draw controls. Defensively, Hentges and sophomore goalie
Katie Lottsfeldt each had five ground balls. Sophomore
Sara Stickler added four ground balls and led the team with three caused turnovers while six others had a pair.
Lottsfeldt had five first half saves as the Bears held an 11-9 lead at the break and the team didn't give up the lead in the second half for
Claire Hagen who surrendered just seven goals to the Panthers.
The Panthers were led by Ryann Deuel's six points on four goals and two assists while Amber Livingston also had a four goal game and Taylor Ries had two goals and two assists. Brenna Knoll had seven draw controls and Deuel added five while Maeve Sweeney had five caused turnovers.
CSP scored 21 goals on goalie Alex Yates, who made seven saves and had three ground balls.
After Concordia jumped in front 5-0 early on, Davenport worked its way back into the contest with a 7-2 scoring run to tie the game at eight in the 22nd minute. Concordia scored three of the next four goals to take a 11-9 lead into the locker room, though.
In the second half, Concordia blew the game open with five straight goals to take its largest lead, 17-10 midway through the half. After a pair of Davenport goals, Concordia scored four in a row for a nine goal edge with just seven and a half minutes remaining in the contest.
Davenport made the end interesting, scoring four straight goals in less than three minutes of elapsed time but Concordia's defense clamped down in the final 3:45 of play to secure the five goal win.
Concordia's aggressive defensive play allowed the team to cause 17 of Davenport's 27 turnovers while the Panthers had just nine caused turnovers among CSP's 20. Concordia also held a 30-23 edge in ground balls, the fifth time CSP has reached 30 ground balls in a game in program history.
After a first half in which Concordia executed just six of its 10 clears, the Bears were perfect on 11 second half clear attempts and finished the game 17-of-21 while Davenport was 14-of-18. CSP edged Davenport by three shots (35-32) but Davenport held the same edge in draw controls (21-18).