March 12, 2017
SAN DIEGO -
Aztec Invitational Tournament Central | Bucknell-San Diego State Final Box
No. 17 San Diego State allowed the first goal of the game and then scored nine unanswered goals en route to a 10-4 victory over Bucknell, a team that was receiving votes in the latest CWPA Top-25 Poll. SDSU, which went 4-0 at the Aztec Invitational, saw its record move to 9-7 on the season.
"Going 4-0 this weekend was a perfect result," San Diego State head coach Carin Crawford said. "I am really pleased with the effort, especially in the game against Indiana when we had two of our starters foul out.
"We really matured as a team this weekend and turned a corner on a lot of the small details that are going to result in the bigger things falling into place," Crawford added. "We had excellent shooting against San José State on Saturday and it was probably Ioli Benekou's best game of her career. Alyssa Diacono has continued to play outstanding 2-meter offense and was a huge factor in our success this weekend, as was Caroline Israels, who had a good weekend in other stat categories, which is something we have asked her to do and her line this weekend reflects that."
In the fourth game of SDSU's 4-0 weekend, Gigi Rojahn gave the Bison an early 1-0 lead with 5:06 left in the first quarter and the Bucknell defense kept the Aztecs in check, only allowing a Makena Magro goal 19 seconds before the period ended.
San Diego State started to get things going offensively in the second quarter. Magro scored 29 seconds into frame and was followed by Katy Schneider less than a minute later. Israels and Diacono (twice) scored in the final 3:06 of the half to propel SDSU to a 6-1 lead at halftime.
When action resumed, the teams struggled to score in the opening minutes. The drought ended with 4:00 left in the third when Hannah Carrillo found the back of the net. That goal led to a Benekou strike 51 seconds later and Diacono made it a 9-1 game just ahead of the two-minute mark.
Bucknell stopped the 9-0 run with back-to-back goals from Tegan Stanbach, but the Aztecs got one of them back when Schneider scored with 36 seconds left. Stanbach later scored the lone goal of the fourth period to provide the final margin.
Goalkeeper Maura Cantoni received the starting nod for SDSU and provided a career-high 10 saves.
The Aztecs will look to extend their season-long four-game winning streak on Thursday, March 16, when UC Irvine visits Montezuma Mesa. Admission to the 4 p.m. PT game is free.