NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles fell to crosstown rival Canisius, 19-12, on Wednesday night at Niagara Field.

The latest edition of the Battle of the Bridge series started brightly for the Purple Eagles (6-9, 2-5 MAAC) when Carrie-Jo Farrugia scored her team-leading 34th goal of the season six minutes into the game to give NU a 1-0 lead. However, Canisius (10-5, 6-1 MAAC) responded by scoring 10 straight goals to hold a 10-1 lead with 3:18 left in the opening half.

Danielle Maio halted the run with a goal at the 2:31 mark, while Kayla Smith scored twice with under a minute left as NU went into halftime trailing 11-4.

The Purple Eagles played the Golden Griffins evenly in the second half with each team finding the back of the net eight times. Erin Patenaude scored all three of her goals in the second half, including Niagara's first two goals of the half, on her way to tying Maio for team-high honors in goals. Jaclyn Schreiber, Brittany Delano (twice) and Maio (twice) were the other goal scorers in the half. Goalkeeper Andrea Francisco and Paige Sasser combined for 11 saves which are the second most this season.  

"I am really proud of the effort tonight," head coach Wendy Stone said. "We played hard for 60 minutes, and did a lot of nice things on both ends of the field."

Niagara concludes its regular season by hosting Quinnipiac on Sunday, April 27 at Noon.