PHILADELPHIA – Sophia Kolkka found the back of the net with 46.1 seconds to go to lead the Saint Joseph's women's lacrosse team to a thrilling 13-12 comeback win over Towson at Sweeney Field on Saturday.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• After an early-second half goal extended the visitors' lead to 10-5, the Hawks kicked things into high gear.  Sam McGee and Taylor Newman-Farr tallied in succession to get the Hawks within three, but the Tigers would answer 30 seconds later to make it an 11-7 game with 21:24 to play.

• Penny Green took over at that point, scoring two goals in a 64-second span before assisting on a third, scored by Riley Delaney, to cut the deficit to one at 11-10 with exactly 15 minutes to go.

• Bridget Cerciello tied things up a minute later before Olivia Little scored her first goal of the season on a free position attempt with 6:30 remaining to give the Hawks their first lead since the middle of the opening half.

• Blair Pearre answered for Towson (0-2) three minutes later to tie the game at 12-12 and set up the dramatic finish.

• Mikala Davis started things off with a key save with about two minutes to go before the Hawks took possession.  Then, with under a minute remaining on the clock, Stephanie Kelly found Kolkka in front of the cage, and she beat Towson's Sara Tyssowski to put SJU back on top.

• The Tigers won the ensuing draw, but Julia Pash caused a turnover in the defensive end and the Hawks ran out the clock on the victory.

• Saint Joseph's (1-2) took control of the early part of the game, scoring three consecutive goals – two by Kelly and one by Cerciello – after the Tigers opened the scoring.  After a Towson equalizer, Kelly would notch the hat trick with a shorthanded goal to make it 4-2 with 16:39 to go in the half.

• Towson then went on a 6-0 run to open up an 8-4 lead before Green scored her first of the day with 19 seconds left to cut the deficit to three.  Unfortunately for the Crimson and Gray, a free position goal with 3.7 seconds to go sent the Tigers into the break with a 9-5 lead.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• Green and Kelly both netted hat tricks on the day, while Cerciello was the only other Hawk with a multi-goal game.  In all, eight different players found the net for SJU.

• Kelly also added two assists to match Towson's Molly Lynch for the game-high with five points.

• Pearre tallied a hat trick of her own for the Tigers, while Lynch handed out a game-high four assists.

• Davis got the start and played all but the last 4:53 of the first half, making 10 saves to earn her first win as a Hawk.  Tyssowski made one save in 15:00 of play in relief of Carly Merlo and took the loss.  Merlo made seven stops of her own.

• Pash played a lockdown role defensively in the second half, finishing the day with five caused turnovers, including the game-clincher in the final seconds.

HAWK TALK
• "We were just trying to work off the ball, see who was open...Steph is a great lefty driver, and we were just trying to create space, and I just happened to be the person to put the ball in the net," Kolkka said after the game.

• "I have full confidence in Sophia; I saw her, we locked eyes, and she finished it like I knew she would," Kelly said.  "We realized that the second half of the first half was not Saint Joseph's lacrosse...in the second half, we came out hungry for the ball.  We knew that we could beat this team; the past two years they beat us by a score that doesn't represent Saint Joseph's lacrosse, so today we knew we had it, we knew we could come back, and we came back with eight goals [in the second half]."

• "We were not satisfied with the first half, but in the second half, we proved ourselves," Kolkka added.

UP NEXT
THe Hawks will play their next three games away from home, beginning with a game at Temple on Wednesday.  Game time is set for 3:00 p.m.