Junior Meredith Donahue scored in the first half and senior Grace Mochnal scored from the dot in the second to power the St. Lawrence University women's soccer team to a 2-1 win over Plattsburgh State on Wednesday afternoon at Sandy MacAllaster Field.

St. Lawrence improved to 5-3-1 on the year, while the Cardinals fell to 3-7-0.

The Scarlet and Brown struck early in the contest scoring on its first shot on goal. Maille McMahon made a terrific play shaking a Plattsburgh defender before closing in on the left side of the box. McMahon sent a perfect pass in to Donahue, who tapped the ball home to give the Saints a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute.

St. Lawrence continued to hound the Cardinals' backline getting a pair of shots from Emma Casey and Mochnal in the following ten minutes. Lauren Haley was up to the task stopping the two looks.

The Cardinals would get the last shot of the half when Bailee Lafountain put a low shot on McDonough. The senior did well to turn away the effort to give the Saints the lead at the half.



St. Lawrence again came out swinging in the second half, but the Cardinals would end up tying the contest in the 55^th minute. The play started with Alexis Patrick, who put a shot on that was stopped by McDonough and deflected off the crossbar. The bad-luck redirection fell to the foot of Kathy Peterson-Ross, who ushered the ball in to tie the match at 1-1.

The Saints continued to up the ante and nearly regained the lead on two occasions but a pair of shots from Madison King-Thurber missed their mark.

St. Lawrence got a golden opportunity in the 70^th minute when Plattsburgh was flagged for a handball in the box. Mochnal, the team's leading scorer, calmly buried the penalty kick to give the Scarlet and Brown the lead back.

Instead of falling back in defense, the team generated four more shots in the following 17 minutes to limit Plattsburgh's touches. In the barrage, Kiki D'Anza, Mochnal, and Barrett Freeman missed the frame with their shots, while Zoe Rogan nearly doubled the lead with a strike in the 87^th minute which was knocked down by Haley.

McDonough and the back line finished off the contest to give the team the 2-1 victory.

McDonough finished with three saves in the winning effort, while Haley stopped four of the six that came her way.

St. Lawrence had the overwhelming majority of shots at 19-7 but had just a 6-4 lead in shots on frame. Underscoring the dominant possession for the Saints was their 9-2 edge in corner kicks.  

The Saints will be back in action this Saturday, October 5 when the team heads to Ithaca in a rematch of last year's Liberty League Tournament. The match will kick off at 3 p.m.