Box Score / PSAC lacrosse tournament release

SHIPPENSBURG – Junior Molly O'Hara scored five goals, including three in the final 10 minutes, as East Stroudsburg University clinched its second trip to the PSAC lacrosse playoffs in three seasons with a 12-9 victory at Shippensburg on Saturday afternoon.

The Warriors (11-6, 6-4 PSAC East) also tied the school record with their 11th win and earned the No. 3 seed in the PSAC East and a trip to No. 2 seed Bloomsburg for the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 4 p.m. West Chester is the top seed in the PSAC East and will host the semifinals and finals next weekend.

O'Hara scored five goals for the fourth time in the last six games, recorded her 11th hat trick in 17 games and has 54 goals this season, fourth in school history. She had four goals and two assists in a 17-12 win over Shippensburg on April 3.

Junior Michelle Mangiaruga had two goals and two assists and sophomore Laura Riegel also added two goals for ESU, which also won 11 games in 2000 and 2008. The Warriors also surpassed last year's school record of 214 goals with 217 this season.

Katie Brewer led Shippensburg (8-9, 5-5) with four goals, while ESU shut out the Raiders' second-leading scorer, Gayle Kuntzmann, who had four goals in the first meeting.

Sophomore Amanda Simms came up big with a career-high 15 saves in goal for the Warriors. Ship was just 2-for-7 on free position shots, including 1-for-5 in the first half, and ESU took a 5-4 lead into intermission.

Neither team led by more than two goals until O'Hara found the net for her fifth goal of the game with 14 seconds left. Mangiaruga opened the second-half scoring to give ESU a 6-4 lead, and Mangiaruga's second goal and the only tally of the game by junior Christine Bradley (one goal, two assists) kept the Warriors in front, 8-6.

Ship scored twice in a two-minute stretch to tie the score at 8-all before O'Hara's third goal made it 9-8 with 9:40 remaining. Brewer netted her fourth score of the afternoon to tie the game for the final time with 6:03 on the clock.

O'Hara gave the Warriors the lead for good on an assist from Bradley with 4:27 left. Ship won the draw control and Brewer earned a free position shot but was turned away by Simms, and ESU maintained possession for more than a minute and capitalized when O'Hara found freshman Ali Green for an 11-9 lead with 2:10 left.

Simms made her final save with a minute to play and O'Hara completed her five-goal game in the closing seconds. The junior has 25 hat tricks and 120 goals in her career, eighth in school history, after passing former teammate Katie Fretz (118, 2005-08).

ESU held a 38-29 advantage in shots and Meghan Kearney also made 15 saves in goal for Shippensburg. Both teams limited their turnovers in a very well played game that was a must-win for the third and final playoff spot in the PSAC East.

Bloomsburg beat the Warriors 13-5 in both meetings this season and has won five straight in the series. ESU's last win was an 8-5 victory in 2008 with O'Hara (two goals, one assist) and Mangiaruga (one goal, one assist) both contributing as freshmen.