BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – The Huskies offense wasn't stifled by the cold rain in Bloomsburg on Saturday as the Bloomsburg lacrosse team downed Gannon 15-9. The Huskies improved to 2-0 on the year while the Golden Knights dropped to 0-3 for the season.
 
As the first quarter closed in on the halfway mark without a score, the Huskies took over on offense as Marykate Sitko (Pennsburg, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) disrupted Gannon's clear attempt and picked up the groundball. Tori Bruno (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) got Reiley Knize (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton) the ball just outside the circle. Knize cut through four defenders and went low to score to the left of the Gannon goalie and give Bloomsburg a 1-0 lead at the 8:02 mark. After the Huskies won the ensuing draw, Bloomsburg went to work on the Gannon defense once again. Amanda Stoll (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) drew a foul in the circle to earn a free position shot. The senior gave up the shot to feed the ball to Bruno who cut in from behind the net and scored her first goal of the season with 7:21 to play in the quarter.
 
Gannon won the following draw and scored at the 6:17 mark to cut the lead in half, 2-1. The Huskies started to pull away with two more in the quarter. One from Amanda Stoll (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) and one from Madison Coyle (Williamstown, N.J./Williamstown) on a free position shot with 3:02 to play in the period.
 
The Huskies quickly pushed their lead to 5-1 just a minute into the second quarter as Stoll won the draw to start the period and Julia Cote (Macungie, Pa./Emmaus) went to the cage to score her fifth of the season. With 10:33 to play, Kayla Stressman (Harleysville, Pa./North Penn) got her first of her Husky career as she scored off a pass from Kristen Lee (Richboro, Pa./Council Rock South) and Coyle gave Bloomsburg a 7-1 lead with her sixth of the season.  Bruno found the back of the net for the second time at 9:08 to extend the Huskies' lead to 8-1.
 
The Golden Knights ended a nearly 15-minute scoring drought as Charlie Hunter buried her first of the game with 6:09 to play before halftime. Bloomsburg ended the second quarter with another goal from Cote at the 3:53 mark as the Huskies were playing a woman up and took the 9-2 lead into the halftime break.
 
Gannon came out of the break with a surge as Madyson Schwartz took advantage of a Golden Knight woman-up situation with her second of the game and Caroline Stevens scored twice to cut the Bloomsburg lead to 9-5. Coyle got two of the goals back for the Huskies with her seventh and eighth of the season to give the Huskies a six-goal lead, 11-5, with 3:59 to go in the third. Gannon sandwiched goals from Stevens and Schwartz around Maya Fulmer's (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) first of the game as Bloomsburg took a 13-7 lead into the final 15 minutes of regulation.
 
After Kate Roberts (Lehman, Pa./Lake Lehman) got on the board for the Huskies to open the fourth quarter, the Golden Knights scored twice to get to within four, 13-9, with 4:59 to play. Cassidy Griffin (Lake Grove, N.Y./Sachem North) gave the Huskies a bit of breathing room as she found the back of the net with 3:26 to play and Stoll put the finishing touches on the scoring with a goal with two seconds left to give the Huskies a 15-9 win.
 
Coyle and Stoll led the Huskies with four points each as Coyle had four goals and Stoll had two and two assists. Cote and Bruno each had two goals and an assist. Coyle also picked up five ground balls, won a pair of draw controls, and caused three turnovers. Stoll led the team with five caused turnovers and had five draws while Stressman led the Huskies with eight draw controls.
 
Lauren Foley (Schwenksville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) needed just four saves in the win for the Huskies while her counterpart Haleigh Manning made 11 saves in 52 minutes and Riley Finnegan allowed two goals and didn't have a save in eight minutes of action for Gannon.
 
As a team, the Huskies were nearly perfect on clears as they were 12-for-15 and were 11-for-11 midway through the fourth quarter. The Huskies won the ground ball battle 34-27 and had the advantage in draw controls, 15-11.
 
Bloomsburg caused 24 of Gannon's 30 turnovers while the Golden Knights returned the favor causing 20 of Bloomsburg's 25 miscues.
 
The Huskies return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Georgian Court for a 2:00 p.m. game in Lakewood, N.J.