水果派AV

In what will end up being聽the final Wells College athletic event to take place on the closing Aurora campus, the Express defeated Mount Aloysius 19-7 on Saturday to be crowned the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference champions. Though Wells ended the season 16-1, head coach Vic Goeller said he had no presumptions back in February how his team's AMCC debut would pan out.

鈥淭here were no expectations. I knew we had brought in a really talented group,鈥� Goeller told 水果派AV.聽鈥淚t probably wasn't until halfway through the season where you're like, 鈥楾his is actually a pretty special group.鈥� That's when it started to mesh together and started to look like something that was going to be special.鈥�

Wells showed how exceptional it was from the jump in the conference championship.聽Within 36 seconds of the game beginning, Lydia Thomas broke the scoring open with Wells鈥� first goal. Thomas scored one more in the quarter and Hannah Lamont contributed two of her own as the Express held its opponent scoreless in the opening frame.

The Mounties eventually struck net nearly two minutes into the second quarter off a free-position shot. However, Thomas responded 30 seconds later with another goal of her own.聽

Both teams would go on to trade goals for the rest of the quarter as Wells took an 8-3 lead into halftime.聽

鈥淲e talk about it all the time: The most important quarters are the first and third," Goeller said.

"Lacrosse, probably more than any sport, is a big momentum game because you have draws. So it鈥檚 really important to build momentum."

Taking the advice their coach had given them all season, the Express broke the game wide open in the third quarter.聽

Logan Lomonaco, who led the Express in goals this season, played facilitator in the first half as she racked up three assists. That changed in the second half as the Mounties switched up their coverage.聽

鈥淭hey were really pressing in on us and I thought we just (needed) to run our plays and get to the goal,鈥� Lomonaco told 水果派AV.

Going back to her scoring ways, Lomonaco was responsible for four of the Express鈥� seven third-quarter goals. Lamont also scored two of the goals in the quarter to help give the Express a 10-goal lead heading into the final frame. Wells then put up four goals over the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter to extinguish any thought of a Mounties comeback attempt.聽

Lomonaco led the way with seven goals and three assists 鈥� one off her career high for points in a single game. Lamont racked up five goals and 15 draw controls.聽

Jade Epp and Thomas each totaled three goals and one assist. Ryleigh Gill concluded with five saves in front of the net.聽聽

Even with the conference championship win, Wells will still need an at-large bid to advance to the NCAA tournament. The selection show for the tournament takes place Monday and will air on .

If the Express isn't selected, Goeller said there's a chance some of his freshman, sophomore and junior Wells players will reunite at another school.聽

鈥淚 know the team wants to stay together," he said. "So there is a possibility that this group will pick up and move someplace else together. Because that's how much they actually like each other and enjoy each other's company. So there's a big push right now. They're all kind of looking at the same school, so that's good.鈥�