Krystin Lawrence (Tecumseh/) scored her first goal as a Warrior in a 4-1 loss to the Nipissing Lakers on Saturday afternoon.
In the first period, the Warriors had a prime opportunity to open the scoring after Maria Dominico was called for a double minor for checking to the head, but did not capitalize. Nipissing peppered Mikayla Schnarr (Waterloo/) with a flurry of high-danger scoring chances towards the end of the period, but the game remained scoreless after 20 minutes.
With less than a minute remaining on a Warriors power play, Schnarr misplayed a puck to Brooklyn Sarnovsky (Courtice/) from behind her net. The puck bounced off the corner onto the stick of Nipissing's Jetta Derenoski, who scored a shorthanded goal past a sprawling Schnarr to make it 1-0 for the visitors.
In the third period, the Lakers' trio of Maria Dominico, Brianna Gaffney, and Teagan Feltz combined for two more goals to extend Nipissing's lead. After Schnarr made an initial save on Gaffney, Feltz found the rebound sitting in the crease and scored to make it 2-0. Later in the period, a long dump-in by Feltz was recovered behind the Warriors' net by Dominico, who centred it to Gaffney to make it 3-0.
After Malory Dominico was sent to the box for boarding with just under 5 minutes to play, Warriors coach Shaun Reagan called his timeout and pulled Schnarr for the extra attacker. It took only 9 seconds for Taytum Clairmont (Waterloo/) and Brooklyn Sarnovsky (Courtice/) to set up Krystin Lawrence (Tecumseh/) for her first goal as a Warrior, closing the gap to 3-1.
The Warriors pulled Schnarr once again, but a neutral zone turnover ended up on the stick of Marilyn Fortin, who skated in and put away the empty netter to make it 4-1.
Mikayla Schnarr (Waterloo/) had a busy day making 34 saves for the Warriors, who fell to 1-2-1-0 (W-OTW-L-OTL) with the loss.
"I thought that overall today that our team worked hard, but I think our issue today was that we didn't work for a full 60 [minutes]. We just need to make sure that we're working on the little things," said rookie forward Jayda Sachs (Warman/). "But I think that our team is moving in the right direction. We just need to keep doing that and we'll be okay."
The Warriors play their next game on Friday, November 1 against the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks in Oshawa. Puck drop is at 7:30 pm. Catch the game live on OUA.tv.
