BUFFALO, N.Y.– Emma Ruggiero (Amherst, NY/Sacred Heart) netted her first collegiate hat trick and added an assist to lead Buffalo State to a 5-2 home victory over Cortland today in the first of four meetings between the two teams this season.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Buffalo State – 5, Cortland – 2
LOCATION: Ice Arena – Buffalo, N.Y.
RECORDS: Buffalo State (3-4-1/2-3-0), Cortland (2-5-2/0-5-2)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Angelina Cruzal (Campbell, CA/Westmont) and Lila Toczek (Pendleton, NY/Starpoint) also scored for the Bengals.
Ruggiero opened the scoring with the only goal of the first period when she intercepted a Cortland pass through its own slot and she quickly fire a wrist shot inside the far post.
Ruggiero netted her second of the game and seventh of the season, capitalizing on another Red Dragon turnover, this time in the neutral zone, before sending another wrist shot to the back of the net just 20 second into the middle stanza.
Cortland cut the deficit in half just over three minutes later, but the Bengals pushed the advantage to 4-1 before the second intermission.
Cruzal scored her first collegiate goal of a feed from Lauren Madden (Jamestown, NY/Jamestown) from behind the net, and then Toczek tallied her third of the season circling out of the corner and sending a quick shot under the cross bar.
Cortland pulled to within two with 13:28 remaining in the third period, but was unable to produce any more quality chances, and Ruggiero added an empty-netter in the closing seconds.
Bri Gawronski (Dunkirk, NY/Mt. Mercy) needed to make just 16 saves as the Bengals outshot Cortland 32-18 for the game.
FOR THE FOES
Grace Schnorr scored the first two goals of her collegiate career.
Victoria Gibson allowed four goals on 21 shots, while Chelsea Allain stopped all 10 shots she faced in relief.
UP NEXT
Buffalo State will host Cortland again tomorrow at 2 p.m.
