After a 15-14 win against Iona on Friday, Quinnipiac soared to a 19-15 win after an explosive offensive drive.

It was a slow start for the Bobcats, as they went down 3-1 against the Gaels in the beginning of the first period. That quickly changed, as the Bobcats went back-to-back for six straight goals to bring the score to 8-4 halfway through the first.

In only their fifth game of the season, the Bobcats came out quite literally swinging.

In the six-goal run by the Bobcats, Megan Szawlowski had a nice shot from behind and through the net traffic to put one past Iona goalie Elyse Darcy.

Sophomore midfielder Sophia Iaccino was the player to watch not only in the first period but all game. By notching a hat trick in the first period, she has now reached seven goals on the season.

Iona’s Caton Brisbin was also a star of the game, getting two goals past Kat Henselder, cutting the Bobcats’ lead to only four goals (11-7) heading into the second half.

The scoring didn’t stop there, Quinnipiac started out the second period with three back-to-back goals for the Bobcats from junior Maddie Deegan and Szawlowski. A clear breakaway down the field into a solo shot got Deegan her third of the game, and a free position goal would give Szawlowki her second of the game bringing the Bobcats to a seven-goal lead (14-7).

“The team decided to play with a higher tempo and to be honest, they shared the ball a lot more,” head coach Tanya Kotowicz said. “Obviously, that helps. Giving more people touches, it keeps everyone in the game.”

Iona would get three back-to-back late in the game to close the lead to just four goals by the end of the game, but Quinnipiac held on for the 19-15 victory.

“It’s always exciting to get a back-to-back win against the same team,” Kotowicz said. “It’s hard to win against the same team twice. It’s a team win which is fun to be a part of.”

The three stars of the game were Deegan, Iaccino, and Iona’s Emily Stewart, who all stole the show with four goals each just in this game alone. Both Deegan and Iaccino have reached eight goals already this this season.

“They’re pushing the charge,” Kotowicz said. “We’ve got a lot of grit coming out of them and I think they create opportunities and when they have those opportunities they’re learning how to capitalize on them.”

The Bobcats have to focus on keeping the lead and they learned just that from the weekend series.

“We have to learn how to get a lead, keep a lead,” said Kotowicz. “It’s a young team. We’re learning but we’re a growing team. We keep moving forward. Today showed we were determined to learn how to keep that lead. All games prepare us for the next one, so we’ll start there. What did we learn? What do we need to work on? But we’re going to work on ourselves.”

Quinnipiac will look to keep that offensive power next weekend as they take on Monmouth next weekend.