For the women’s lacrosse team, a game against Fairfield was all the offense needed to wake up from its slumber.

The Elis (3-4, 0-2 Ivy) steamrolled over Fairfield (2-5) 19-4 Wednesday afternoon at the Stags’ University Stadium. Nine Bulldogs tallied points in the matchup, and attacker Marya Myers ’07 led all scorers with four goals. The rout showcased Yale’s deep bench and its talented freshman class.

“It was a great game,” goaltender Lonnie Sarnell ’06 said. “Everyone played, and every single person did an awesome job. A game like that truly shows the depth of our team.”

In the Bulldogs’ last contest against Fairfield, the Elis romped over the Stags 25-3, and this year’s game was no different. But, for a team which has struggled in recent games to maintain a consistently high level of play and has been subject to mental lapses, the Elis knew it would take a strong effort to avoid the overconfidence and sloppy play which naturally comes out against weak opponents.

“It was really exciting to play a solid 60-minute game and not let ourselves play at a lower level,” midfielder Sarah Scalia ’06 said. “We did a good job of keeping the game at our pace, and we never allowed them to get into their own flow.”

The Bulldogs, who were coming off a five-game streak during which they did not score more than eight goals, reasserted the offensive dominance they showed early in the year. En route to winning their season opener over James Madison University, the Bulldogs racked up 14 goals. Since then, however, the Elis have relied on their strong defense to keep them in close games while their offense has been relatively quiet.

But yesterday afternoon, the Yale attack stole the show.

“The attack really moved the ball well and generated a lot of shots,” midfielder Lindsay Levin ’07 said. “It was great to see everyone on the field get a chance to score, and today the goals were spread around throughout the team.”

Midfielder Katie Sargent ’05 lit up the scoreboard just 12 seconds into the matchup and Myers added to the Elis’ early lead with a free position goal at 26 seconds.

But Fairfield was not ready to give up so early, and Sarah Masterson snuck the Stags’ first goal past Sarnell at 2:14. Myers responded less than three minutes later with her second goal of the afternoon to kick off a 13-0 run which lasted well into the second period.

Eli rookies led the charge with six of the 13 goals. Freshman attackers Meredith Callahan ’08 and Tucker Marrison ’08, who hit two shots, scored their first collegiate points during the streak. Midfielder Lauren Taylor ’08, who leads the team in goals scored this season, scored three in a span of four minutes to pull down her third hat trick of the year.

Attacker Caroline Edsall ’06 also netted her first goal of the year, and Meredith Mack ’05 scored twice during the run. Myers had two and Sargent had one during the stretch to round out the scoring.

With Yale leading 15-1, goaltender Casey Littlelfield ’07 took over the goaltending duties from Sarnell, who made 12 saves while she was in the net. The Stags attacked the new goalie hard, and Ashley Chappell scored Fairfield’s second goal of the game at 13:02 into the second half.

Attacker Carli Vogler ’06 responded with her first goal of the afternoon five minutes later. Vogler hit two more in the last 10 minutes of the second half to help put Fairfield away. Freshman attacker Katherine Peetz ’08 followed the example of her classmates and hit her first collegiate goal at 20:08 into the half.

Fairfield went down fighting, and managed to score twice in the last five minutes, but the Stags’ efforts were in vain and Yale trounced their Constitution State rivals.

“Today we just came out and got the job done,” Levin said. “We never gave Fairfield a chance, and the momentum was in our favor the whole game.”

The win sets Yale up for Saturday’s showdown against Harvard, a crucial game for the Elis, who have yet to beat an Ivy League opponent.