BUCKHANNON – For 15 minutes of the first half, the West Virginia Wesleyan Lady Bobcats and Shepherd Rams were locked an even battle with second place in the Mountain East Conference on the line today at Cebe Ross Field.

Wesleyan trailed by just a 4-3 margin halfway through the first half, but Shepherd took the momentum away from the Lady 'Cats en route to an 18-4 victory.

Shepherd scored twice in the first two minutes of the game, but Natalie Schaffner put Wesleyan on the scoreboard at the 26:14 mark when she tallied an unassisted goal to make it a 2-1 contest.

Shepherd scored two more but Wesleyan countered with a pair of goals to make it a 4-3 game.

Madison Duvall scored an unassisted goal and then Kim Lubic scored a goal with the assist going to Schaffner.

Wesleyan scored just one goal the rest of the way.

Shepherd scored the next eight goals for an 11-3 lead.

Schaffner ended the run with an unassisted goal but Shepherd scored to close out the first half with a 12-4 lead.

Shepherd kept Wesleyan off the scoreboard in the second half as they scored six times.

Wesleyan was outshot by a 29-15 margin in shots-on-goal.

Wesleyan keeper Hannah Antonelli turned away 11 shots.

The Lady 'Cats were guilty of 17 turnovers while Shepherd turned it over 14 times.

Wesleyan owned 14-10 edge in draw controls.

Shepherd improved to 5-10 overall and 3-1 in the MEC.

The Lady 'Cats dropped to 4-9 overall and 2-2 in the MEC.

Wesleyan fell to fourth-place in the MEC but are still assured of a spot in the four-team MEC post-season tournament.

The will close out the regular season this Friday at UVa.-Wise in a league contest.

That game will start at 6 p.m.

(File photo courtesy of Lee Pappas)