TOWSON, Md. – Blair Pearre scored a season-high five goals and won a career-best 13 draw controls as the Towson University women's lacrosse team defeated St. Joseph's 20-8 at Tiger Field on Saturday night.

Kerri Thornton had a career-high four goals, including three in the third quarter. Gabby Garrett added a hat trick, while Lindsay Clarke scored twice and added three assists for the Tigers (1-3).

Towson won 23-of-31 draws on the evenings with Pearre, Thornton and freshman Milana Zizakovic combining to win 21.

The score was tied at 2-all with less than three minutes remaining in the opening quarter when Garrett, Pearre and Thornton scored in less than three minutes to give Towson the lead for good.

Pearre scored two more times as the Tigers built a 10-3 lead late in the second quarter. The former Under Armour All-American has 17 career hat tricks and has scored at least two goals in 23 of 27 games at the collegiate level. Her 82 career goals are fast approaching the Top 20 in school history.

The 13 draw controls were one shy of the school record set by Natalie Sulmonte against Georgetown in 2018.

St. Joe's cut the deficit to 10-6 but Towson countered with a 6-1 run with Thornton scoring three unassisted goals as Sonia LaMonica's team took a 16-7 lead after 45 minutes of play and cruised to victory.

"We placed a big emphasis on putting a full 60 minutes together and breaking it down quarter by quarter," LaMonica said. "Blair was unbelievable. We made some adjustments and it allowed Blair to dominate on the draw and it was fantastic to see her in fine form. We needed to find a way. This is a young group, so this was an opportunity for them to build on the resiliency we talk about and work on. I am really proud of the team taking it to heart and knowing that there is a lot of lacrosse to play in front of us. The team did a great job this week preparing on and off the field."

• Towson – 1-3
• Saint Joseph's – 3-3

• Down 1-0, Clarke made back-to-back plays to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. First, she found Halley Koras on the doorstep then she scored unassisted after a nifty move from behind the cage.
• The score was 2-all, when Garrett scored unassisted at the 5:42 mark.
• About two minutes later, Thornton fed Pearre inside. The junior scored to make it 4-2 with 3:40 remaining.
• Towson was the ensuing draw and Thornton capped a 3-0 run with her first of the game. It was 5-2 after 15 minutes of play.
• After the Hawks scored to make it 5-3, Towson scored a pair of goals in a 10 second span to double the advantage. Nicole Liucci scored a free-position goal at the 8:37 mark then Pearre controlled the draw and raced down scoring at 8:27 to give Towson a 7-3 lead.
• Less than a minute later, the Tigers had another two-goal outburst in less than 20 seconds. Clarke scored her second of the night at 7:43. Fifteen seconds later, Pearre scored a free position goal to make it 9-3. At that point, she had three goals and eight draw controls.
• Garrett scored left-handed off a Clarke feed to increase the lead to 10-3 with 3:28 left in the first half.
• St. Joe's scored the next three goals to narrow the deficit to 10-6 early in the third quarter.
• Towson answered with a 6-1 run over the next 10 and a half minutes.
• Pearre got things started with her second free-position goal of the game. She now has 46 career free-position goals.
• Thornton then took over, scoring three of the next four goals for Towson, all unassisted.
• Koras had her second tally of the game during the run, while Paige Abbott assisted on a Kerri Liucci score with 2:45 remaining in the third quarter that gave Towson a 16-7 advantage.
• Pearre scored her fifth goal of the night at the 10:15 mark. Forty-five seconds later Clarke and Garrett hooked up again to give Towson a 10-goal lead.
• After Zizakovic made it 19-8 with her sixth goal of the season, Kamryn McNeal found Mia Rehkemper for the final score of the game. It was the first career point for both players.

Key Stats

• Sara Tyssowski made eight saves to earn the victory.
• Junior defender Olivia Malamphy caused two turnovers, picked up three grounds balls and had a draw control.
• This was the first time Towson has held an opponent to less than 10 goals since an 18-5 win over George Mason last April.

Inside the Numbers

• Thornton had three career hat tricks before today's four goal game, including last month versus Loyola.
• Garrett has scored a goal in all four games this season. The junior entered the 2022 season with two career goals. She has eight goals already this season.
• Pearre had three five-goal games last season as well as games with six and seven goals. Her previous high in draw controls was eight versus Elon last May.
• Clarke matched her career-high in points. Last season, while playing for Oregon she had a goal and four assists versus Stanford.
•  The last Tiger to have 10 or more draw controls in a game was Lindsey Marshall (10) against William & Mary on April 10, 2021.

Next Game

Towson will visit UMBC on Wednesday, March 9 at 4 p.m. before returning home for three straight games versus Penn State (March 15), Vanderbilt (March 23) and Georgetown (March 26).