Montclair, NJ - Senior Cortney Natalicchio scored once and assisted on four other goal as third-ranked The College of New Jersey held off Montclair State, 8-6 in a New Jersey Athletic Conference contest at Sprague Field on Saturday.

Mia Blackman, Megan Devlin and Erin Waller each scored twice as the Lions extended their winning streak to four games. TCNJ moved to 11-1 on the season, 2-0 in the NJAC.

FRANCESCA VERRONE registered two goals and two assists for the Red Hawks (7-4, 0-1 NJAC), who were seeking their first victory against the Lions in 17 all-time meetings. The two-goal margin was the closest in the series history since 2007 when TCNJ edged MSU 12-10 in Ewing, NJ.

Blackman and Natalicchio teamed up for the first two goals of the game with Natalicchio setting up Waller with 19:52 left for a 3-0 New Jersey lead. That's the way the game stood until 7:30 to play when Montclair State's KARA CRAMPTON scored off a free-position attempt cutting the lead to 3-1. It was the first goal allowed by the Lions in a span of 120:44. TCNJ allowed a goal with 20 minutes left in the first half of its 9-2 win over Stevens on Tuesday before a 15-0 blanking of Eastern on Thursday.
 
Waller got that goal back for TCNJ connecting with 3:46 allowing the Lions to take a 4-1 lead into the break.

KASEY MAGUIRE scored for the Red Hawks 54 seconds into the new half making the score 4-2 before the Lions embarked on a three-goal run to widen its lead to five. Devlin netted the first with 26:59 to play with Natalicchio and Kathlee Jaeger scoring 27 seconds apart for a 7-2 lead .

AVIANA PARAGGIO and Devlin traded goals over a two-minute span keeping the lead at five goals (8-3).

The Red Hawks then mounted their rally with Verrone scoring with 13:05 left and again off an assist from Paraggio two minutes later as MSU crept within 8-5. The two reversed rolls with 7:25 remaining getting Montclair to the two-goal margin.

The teams would play defense the next four minutes with Montclair State getting the ball back with 3:37 to play after MEREDITH KING forced a turnovers. The Red Hawks worked the ball around the attack for over a minute before a foul gave MSU a free-position attempt with 2:14 left. TCNJ keeper Miranda Chrone came up with a huge stop against Paraggio.

The Lions cleared the ball out of the defensive end and ran out the remainder of the game clock to seal the victory.

Chrone made three saves for the Lions with REBECCA MYERS stopping six for Montclair State. King collected six ground balls along with four forced turnovers. Verrone added three draws, three caused turnovers and two ground balls. Senior NICOLE FRANCIS totaled four ground balls.

Montclair State is now off until next Saturday, April 16 when it travels to Glassboro, NJ to face Rowan University at 1:00 pm.