NEWTON, MA – Top-seeded Mount Ida College (10-7, 7-0 GNAC) defeated #4 Saint Joseph's (10-8, 4-3 GNAC), 13-0, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Semifinal contest on Thursday afternoon. With the setback, the Monks' 2011 campaign comes to a close.
Mustangs senior attacker Matthew Savage (Peabody, MA/Peabody) notched a game high three goals and tallied his 200th career point in the victory, which propels Mount Ida into the conference championship game this Saturday. The Mustangs will host #2 Lasell College at 12:00 PM that day.
Along with Savage, Mount Ida senior midfielder Dan Harrington (Westford, MA/Westford Academy) collected his 100th point when he scored the sixth goal of the game.
Mount Ida junior netminder James McAllister (Smithfield, RI/LaSalle Academy) pitched the shutout with another amazing performance denying 16 Monk attempts. St. Joe's sophomore goaltender Christopher Driscoll (Saco, ME/Thornton Academy) caromed 15 Mustang shots but received no help from his offense.
Following a slow start offensively, sophomore attacker Jake Davis (Chester, NH/Pinkerton Academy) tallied the first goal of the contest for the Mustangs on a feed from freshman Zachary Davis (Old Lyme, CT/Xavier) midway through the opening frame for the 1-0 lead.
Mount Ida notched two more scores in the first stanza on tallies from sophomore Mike Durand (Londonderry, NH/Londonderry) on a dish from Jake Davis followed by a sophomore Nick Yacuzzi (Worcester, MA/St. John's-Shrewsbury) goal from junior Sean Slattery (South Burlington, VT/South Burlington) for the 3-0 lead.
Exactly one minute into the second quarter, Savage would tally his first of three goals on a feed from freshman attacker Zachary Rosen (East Greenwich, RI/St. Andrew's School) taking the 4-0 advantage. Savage struck again six minutes later on a dish from Yacuzzi inflating the lead to 5-0.
Harrington followed with an impressive jump shot that found the back of the net for his 100th point giving Mount Ida a 6-0 advantage with two minutes to go in the frame. Rosen notched the final score of the quarter on an assist from senior Paul Battipaglia (Clinton, CT/Morgan) heading into the break up 7-0.
Senior defender Billy Eagan (North Andover, MA/North Andover) broke free off a turnover going coast-to-coast netting an unassisted bid 10 seconds into the third stanza leading 8-0. Two unassisted goal ensued on scores from Yacuzzi and Battipaglia giving Mount Ida a big 10-0 advantage with over 10 minutes remaining in the frame.
Harrington notched the final goal of the quarter on a dish from Jake Davis to lead 11-0. Savage and junior attacker Billy Gerke (Essex, VT/Rice Memorial) added the last two tallies of the game, both on unassisted bids, to close out the 13-0 post-season semifinal shutout victory over the Monks.
The visitors took 30 shots for the game but were unable to get anything by the hot hand of McAllister. Mount Ida continues to struggle in the middle circle going only 6-15 to the Monks 9-15.
The Mustangs were near perfect clearing the ball out of their zone going 32-34 while the visitors had difficulty because of a swarming Mount Ida defense at 19-31.
The loss signals the end of college lacrosse for SJC seniors Elliot LaMarre (Raymond, ME), Ross Hardaway (East Boston, MA), Blake Edwards (Glide, OR), David Schreiber (Lewiston, ME) and Tookie Amosun (Gardiner, ME). The quintet, which helped the team post a 26-38 record over four seasons, composes the Monks' first four-year class in program history.
COURTESY OF MOUNT IDA COLLEGE SPORTS INFORMATION