NASHUA, NH – The Saint Joseph's College men's lacrosse team (6-6, 1-2 GNAC) notched the first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) win in program history with a 25-2 victory over Rivier College (0-5, 0-3 GNAC) on Saturday afternoon. Fourteen different SJC players scored in the lopsided triumph.
The Monks outshot the Raiders by a 66-5 margin and broke the program record for margin of victory in the win. St. Joe's also tied the team single-game mark with 39 points (25 goals, 14 assists). The St. Joe's men's lacrosse team, which participated in the North Atlantic Conference for the last two seasons, is in it's first year as a member of the GNAC.
St. Joe's was up 6-0 after the first period and went up 7-0 on Spencer Hunt's (Jeffersonville, VT) third goal of the game before the Raiders got on the board. Freshman Danny Hooper (Wakefield, RI) scored the first goal for the Raiders on a pass from Carl Ghannad (Salem, NH) to make it 7-1. The Monks scored five goals by five different players over the rest of the half to take a 12-1 lead into halftime.
Rivier's Jeff Kelly (Westborough, MA) opened up the scoring in the third period with an unassisted gem from 25 feet, but that would be all the Raiders could muster as the Monks clamped down and didn't give Rivier many more opportunities in offense. The Monks once again scored five straight goals by five different players to push their lead to 17-2 after three complete periods. In the fourth period the Monks took 16 more shots, compared to just one for the Raiders, and scored eight more goals to finish the game 25-2.
Hunt led the Monks with 6 goals and 4 assists while Zachary Chaisson (Concord, NH) and Jonathan Horgan (Hingham, MA) added 3 goals each. Horgan also notched 4 assists in the victory. Goalkeepers Chris Driscoll (Saco, ME) and Colin Finn (North Easton, MA) combined to allow just 2 goals and make 2 saves on the day. Rivier goalie Chris Benoit (Blackstone, MA) made 17 saves while allowing 25 goals in the loss.
Rivier will travel to Emerson College on Tuesday for another GNAC match-up at 6:00 PM. Saint Joseph's will play at Daniel Webster College in a conference contest on Tuesday at 3:30 PM.
COURTESY OF RIVIER COLLEGE SPORTS INFORMATION
