HUNTINGDON – Despite a strong showing in the second half, the Wilkes women's lacrosse team dropped their Landmark Conference contest to Juniata College 20-6 on Friday afternoon at the Henry H. and Joanie R. Gibbel Stadium.
 
The Colonels moved to 2-8 overall and 0-2 in conference play. With the win, the Eagles improved to 8-2 and leveled their Landmark record at 1-1.
 
After Wilkes goalkeeper Samantha Scott (Binghamton, NY/Chenango Valley) made four saves in the early stages of the first quarter, Juniata put up eight unanswered goals to jump out to an 8-0 lead. Maleah Cobham (Westbury, NY/W.T. Clarke) stopped the bleeding with her fifteenth goal of the season at 4:37 of the first frame. The Eagles responded with a pair of goals to end the first fifteen with a 10-1 lead, however Scott's fifth and sixth saves of the afternoon avoided further damage for Wilkes.
 
Juniata opened the second quarter with a free position goal before tacking on four more goals to take a 15-1 lead into halftime. After 30 minutes of action, the Eagles outshot Wilkes 24-2 and were 3-3 on free position shots, The Colonels recovered five ground balls and forced seven turnovers.
 
The Blue and Gold opened the second half with solid forechecking efforts, resulting in a pair of ground ball pickups by Alexis Gutilla and Ava Ward (Mount Pleasant, SC/Bishop England) within the first two minutes. Shortly after a Juniata goal, Breanne Fulling (Hyde Park, NY/Franklin D. Roosevelt) notched her eighth goal of the campaign with 10:39 remaining in the third quarter. The Colonels made it back-to-back goals less than two minutes later when Ward fired a shot home at 8:52. The graduate student's thirteenth of the season cut the Eagle lead to 16-3. Brooklynn Donia (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) took over between the pipes for Wilkes and quickly made a pair of saves to prevent Juniata from building the lead back up. The hosts added a pair of goals before the third quarter ended to bring their advantage to 18-3.
 
Juniata scored twice in the early portion of the fourth quarter before Ward netted her second of the afternoon on a man-up free position shot at 8:52. With just over two minutes left in the final frame, Ward completed the hat trick with another free position goal at 2:02. Cobham concluded the scoring with nine seconds on the game clock. The senior's second of the day brought the final score to 20-6.
 
Ward led the Colonels with three goals on three shots and caused two turnovers to share the team lead with Anmarie Lebron (Pennsauken, NJ/Pennsauken). Cobham scored twice on five shots while Scott and Donia combined for 13 saves in net.
 
Grace Gibbs and Kyndall Yaeger both posted five-goal performances for Juniata as Skyler Stevens recorded five ground balls to lead the team. Caoilinn Heatley went the distance in goal for the Eagles, making five saves.
 
The Colonels will return home to Schmidt Stadium on Wednesday, April 3 when they host the Drew University Rangers for a 5:00 p.m. Landmark Conference matchup.