EMMITSBURG, Md. - Alexis Salerno (South Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) scored three of the first five goals to power Mount St. Mary's past Howard 21-1 in non-conference women's lacrosse action on Monday.

Salerno, who came into the contest with six career goals, scored the first two goals of the game in the first 98 seconds to get the Mount (1-1) off and running and added two more goals in the first half to finish with a career-high four tallies.

Ashley Johnson (Arvada, Colo./Arvada West) scored a career-high five times while freshman Jordan Certeza (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Lutheran) tallied two goals and four assists and Emily Kirby (Reisterstown, Md./Franklin) registered two markers and two assists to give head coach Sonia LaMonica her first coaching victory at Mount St. Mary's.

Disiree Cox scored the lone goal for the Bison and Amber Meeks made six saves in the loss.

The Mount scored four times in the first 10 minutes and never looked back to earn its eighth win against Howard and its first win of the 2010 season.

Salerno got the scoring started with an unassisted tally at 1:24 and then found the back of the net again off a Lucy Pompa (Baltimore, Md./Bryn Mawr School) assist 14 seconds later. Kirby then set up Certeza for her first collegiate tally at 2:10 and then the freshman scored unassisted at 6:03. Salerno notched her first career hat trick when she took a feed from Esther Rufolo (Woodstock, Md./Chapelgate Christian Academy) at 10:25 for a 5-0 lead.

Johnson then scored back-to-back times with the first score coming off a feed from Kirby at 12:42 and then unassisted at 13:04. After Certeza set up Pompa 41 seconds later, Jen Semler (Baltimore, Md./Perry Hall) scored her first goal of the year at 15:47 before Salerno found the twine for the fourth time on the afternoon to give the Mountaineers a 10-0 margin with 13:15 left in the first half.

Certeza then set up Johnson at 19:35 and Rufolo at 24:57 before Kirby scored for the first time off a Sydney Sykes (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) assist at 26:04. After notching her first collegiate point, Sykes scored her first career tally at 27:06 and Allie Fife (Alexandria, Va./Bishop Ireton) capped the 15-goal first half with her first collegiate marker with 1:37 left in the stanza.

Rufolo started the scoring in the second half when she scored off a Certeza feeder at 35:27. Kaitlyn Larrimore (Pylesville, Md./North Harford) notched her first career tally unassisted at 37:11 before Semler set up Johnson at 38:21. After Kirby found the back of the net off a Sykes assist at 46:08, Johnson converted an 8-meter attempt at 50:29 to give the Mount a 20-0 advantage.

Natalie Loutchaninoff (Kingwood, Texas/Northeast Christian Academy) became the fifth player in the match to register her first collegiate goal when she found the twine off a Fife helper at 52:36.

Cox got the Bison on the scoreboard after scoring with 19 seconds left.

Rufolo paced the defense with seven draw controls, four ground balls and a caused turnover. Pompa and Jackie Kearney (Baltimore, Md./Seton Keough) each added two ground balls and two caused turnovers while Aly Jost (Abington, Md./Bel Air) recorded three ground balls and a caused turnover.

Brigid McTavish (Mount Airy, Md./South Carroll) made five saves in 38:21 of action and Sarah Leder (Manalapan, N.J./Colts Neck) made her collegiate debut by playing the final 21:39 of the contest.

Johnson moved into ninth place on the program's all-time career goals list with 88 and became the 17th player in program history to reach 100 points in her career.

Mount St. Mary's returns to action on Sunday at Denver. Game time is 1 p.m.