March 29, 2012

STANDISH, ME – Saint Joseph's College (4-6, 2-0 GNAC) topped Daniel Webster College (2-3, 0-3 GNAC), 13-5, in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's lacrosse action at Deering Memorial Stadium on Thursday night.

The Monks held a slim 2-1 advantage after one quarter of play but proceeded to outscore the visiting Eagles 5-1 in the second and 3-0 in the third to put the game away. Both clubs netted three markers in the final frame to account for the final 13-5 tally.

Daniel Webster opened the game scoring when sophomore midfielder Bobby Loranger (Billerica, Mass.) netted an unassisted marker 4:23 into the contest. St. Joe's responded five minutes later when sophomore midi Andrew Hamill (Wolfeboro, N.H.) found the back of the cage off a Benson Pasquarello (Kennebunk, Maine) feed and the Royal Blue took the lead with a Michael McGann (Lee, N.H.) goal, off a Paul Dolewa (Saco, Maine) pass, with six seconds left in the opening stanza.

Daniel Webster sophomore Nate Burr (Southbury, Conn.) knotted the conference contest at two-apiece with a man-up marker off a Justin Chiulli (Saugus, Mass.) dime just 1:40 into the second quarter, but the visitors would not hit pay dirt again for nearly 36 minutes, a span during which the Royal Blue would rattle off 10 unanswered goals to seal the Monks' second GNAC victory of the season.

Pasquarello scored what turned out to be the game-winner off a Kody Peckham (West Gardiner, Maine) pass with 11:19 left in the second period. The well-balanced SJC offense saw Max Meserve (Kennebunk, Maine), Jonathan Horgan (Hingham, Mass.), Nathan Hopkins (Scarborough, Maine) and Dalton Eldridge (South Gardiner, Maine) score goals during the remainder of the second quarter, pushing the hosts' cushion to 7-2 heading into intermission.

Dolewa began the third-quarter scoring with a pair of goals, the latter being of the man-up variety, two minutes apart and Horgan put one past Daniel Webster senior keeper Tommy Driscoll (South Boston, Mass.) to lift Saint Joseph's to a 10-2 lead going into the final quarter.

Junior long-stick midi Robert Murtha (North Kingstown, R.I.) netted his first goal of the season 3:34 into the fourth quarter and Dolewa completed his hat-trick effort with his second man-up marker of the night to extend the Monks' advantage to 12-2 with 10:11 remaining.

The Eagles' scoring slump came to an end when freshman attackman Kurtis Fotheringham (Shrewsbury, Mass.) scored off a Chiulli feed with 7:31 to go and Loranger made it a 12-4 game with his second of the night just over a minute later. Pasquarello and Eagles freshman midi Dan Knupfer (Corfu, N.Y.) swapped man-up goals in the closing minutes to cap the game scoring with the Monks on top by a 13-5 margin.

For the Monks, Horgan tallied two goals, two assists and nine ground balls, Dolewa added three goals and a helper, junior defender Albert Comins (Newbury, Mass.) registered eight ground balls and five caused turnovers, Pasquarello chipped in with two goals and an assist, Murtha scooped up nine ground balls, and Hopkins posted a goal and an assist.

Loranger and junior midfielder Eric Mulford (Canton, Mass.) both corralled a game-high 11 ground balls for the Eagles.

SJC starting keeper Chris Driscoll (Saco, Maine) made five saves in 45 minutes of play to pick up the victory while freshman netminder Ethan Rettew (Ephrata, Pa.) posted five stops while serving in net for the final quarter. Tommy Driscoll was busy for the visitors, making 14 stops in a losing effort.

With the victory Saint Joseph's improves to 4-0 in the history of the series with Daniel Webster College.

St. Joe's will host Becker College in a conference contest at Deering Memorial Stadium on Saturday at 12:30 PM. Daniel Webster also returns to action on Saturday when the team hosts GNAC-rival Norwich University in a 1:00 PM start.