The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team won its Saturday afternoon matchup against La Salle 23-11, recording its highest goal count of the season.

The Minutewomen (8-3, 6-0 Atlantic 10) hosted the Explorers (1-10, 0-5 A-10) at Garber Field for their pride game, taking control of the game during Jordan Dean’s first draw control.

“We definitely did a great job of pushing the pace in the fast break,” head coach Jana Drummond said. “That’s the most goals we’ve scored this season, so I think [it’s] really a testament to our offense playing.”

With 11 different goal scorers, UMass highlighted its offense strength with an unrelenting attack on La Salle. Kassidy Morris, Delaney Rodriguez-Shaw and Tess Shields recorded hat tricks, and Bridget Valentine scored her first of the season.

After receiving the ball from a rebound just outside the eight-meter arc, Valentine found her name on the scoresheet after shooting from the right of Explorer goalkeeper Brooke Nelson’s net.

From there, the Minutewomen scored four more times to end the first quarter ahead 10-3.

Jeilinne Bonilla recorded her third goal of the season in the dying embers of the contest. With about 10 minutes on the clock, she received the ball from a hop, running from the halfway mark to find the back of Mary Babbage’s net, shooting just inside of the eight-meter arc. With her name on the score sheet, Bonilla brought UMass’ goal tally to 22.

Having so many goal-scorers during the contest, fluidity and balance in the offense was crucial to the dominating performance. With connections made consistently between Morris, Rodriguez-Shaw, Ava Connaughton and Shields, the balance between the offense leaders was the key to Saturday’s success.

Drummond attributed this success to her assistant coaches Lia LaPrise and Avery Giorgio for teaching her players the “IQ” of understanding where each other and their teammates are placed on the field.

Connaughton led the Minutewomen in assists, providing three and a goal during the matchup. Her first came in the first 20 seconds of the first quarter after assisting Rodriguez-Shaw’s first of four goals. Her own goal was scored in the last three minutes of the first quarter, coming from the back of Nelson’s net and shooting over her shoulder to record her 24th of the season.

Goalkeeper Catrina Tobin also had a good afternoon, saving three of the 10 shots she faced during her 45 minutes of playtime. She also caused one turnover and recovered a drop ball.

Draw control record holder Dean won 15 draw controls during the afternoon, eight short of her season high of 23 against Duquesne.

Saturday’s victory is UMass’ 51 straight conference win and its sixth straight this season as it currently sits at the top of the A-10 conference.

Looking ahead, Drummond wants to focus on taking more draw controls and more defensive stops for all future games.

“It’s really just sticking to what’s in front of us and where our feet are,” Drummond said. “We don’t want to look too far ahead … the more we can be disciplined in the details of it all, minimize turnovers … place the shots on net and then work as a unit on defense … everything should fall into place.”

The Minutewomen will be back in action Saturday, April 5 at Garber Field to take on the Richmond Spiders. The matchup is scheduled to take place at 11 a.m.

This will be the first time the two sides face each other after UMass fell to them in the A10 championship game last season.

“As long as we stick to [the] UMass identity through and through, we should come out on top,” Drummond said.

Emma Bensley can be reached at [email protected]