Nicholas Signoretta, Editor

FloSports.tv with an incredibly favorable and generous review. (courtesy of sitejabber.com)

The La Salle women’s lacrosse team kept their early season out of conference slate cooking with their third… I mean second match of the season this past week as they traveled to no one’s favorite Philadelphia school, Villanova University.  While Villanova might be a sad excuse for a city school, they do not hold a candle to the joke of a streaming service used to broadcast this heater of a lacrosse match between unranked opponents on a weekday afternoon (very thrilling).  The contest was streamed on FloSports.tv, which, to my knowledge, no one owns a subscription for, including Mark Floreani, the CEO of FloSports (or so his LinkedIn claimed).  Due to this broadcasting oversight by the almighty Augustinians running “Villa-No-Fun,” yours truly was forced to watch the play-by-play of this game instead of the actual tape.  In all honesty, it made no difference for my viewing experience as I do not understand the game of lacrosse in video or text form.  Now, on to game.

Mark Floreani: Public Enemy #1. (courtesy of linkedin.com)

For the third straight season, the La Salle Explorers (0-3) faced off against the Villanova Wildcats (4-0) after the series took nearly a decade off in the 2010s.  Since the revival of this rivalry, the Wildcats have taken both matchups with varying degrees of certainty.  A narrow 11-10 Villanova win in 2021 was followed up by a 14-3 thumping of La Salle in 2022, so this year’s game was up in the air when it came to how the Explorers would eventually lose.  The 2023 edition of the series commenced on Wednesday, Feb 25th, at 1PM EST, at Villanova Stadium.  The Wildcats opened the game with an early 4-0 lead before Mackenzie Click got the Explorers on the board with 4:54 remaining in the 1st Qtr.  Villanova would tack on another three scores to make it 7-1 halfway through the 2nd Qtr, but a 3-1 La Salle run featuring goals from Alana Lathan, Katie Johnson, and Maddie Henderson saw the game at what looked to be a mildly contested 8-4 scoreline.  Angered by the Explorers’ efforts, the Wildcats tacked on two goals in the closing twenty seconds of the 1st Half to secure a 10-4 lead at the break.  Villanova got the better end of the orange slices and juice boxes during the rest, as they came out and proceeded to lay the hammer down on La Salle, scoring five goals in the 3rd Qtr without conceding once (few things worse than reading fifteen minutes of play-by-play just to see your team never score).  With the score at 15-4 entering the 4th Qtr, the game slowly crept to a close.  The final was 16-7, as La Salle secured another late 3-1 run with more guest appearances courtesy of Henderson, Click, and Sara Grassi.

Henderson, Click, and Lathan led the team in points with 2 (2 goals for Henderson and Click, 1 goal and 1 assist for Lathan), Click got the most shots with 7 (4 on target), and Maya Rhymes and Liza Dellaratta both secured the most ground balls with 3.  Starting keeper Julia Dellaratta put up 7 saves against 16 shots on goal, good for a 43.75% save percentage.

The final from Villanova: Public Enemy #2’s very uncreatively named Villanova Stadium. (courtesy of @lasallelacrosse)

This upcoming week the girls finally get to celebrate their home opener with a Wednesday, Mar 1st, clash against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (3-1) at McCarthy Field.  The 3PM EST matchup will be a rematch of last year’s game, where the Explorers fell 13-5 in Bethlehem, PA.  This match will be streamed on ESPN+ (thank you).  And if one La Salle women’s lacrosse game in a week was not enough, the Explorers get a second opponent this week, as they will go toe-to-toe with the Mount Saint Mary’s Mountaineers (0-3) on Saturday, Mar 5th, at Waldron Family Stadium.  The Explorers topped the Mountaineers 10-9 in 3OT last season, so hopefully they prevail in this year’s affair.  This game will stream on ESPN3 at 2PM EST (second thank you).  By the time I sit down to write another one of these masterpieces, I hope to speak of an Explorers win.  Or of my resignation.  Either would suffice.