PORTLAND, Maine – Johnson & Wales University (6-6, 4-2 GNAC) upended Saint Joseph's College (5-7, 2-4 GNAC), 8-3, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's lacrosse contest at Deering Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Freshman Luigi Grimaldi (Portland, Maine) netted a pair of goals in the losing effort.
Saint Joseph's scored twice in the first quarter and held a 2-1 lead after the first 15 minutes, but Johnson & Wales rattled off six unanswered goals during the second and third quarters en route to the five-goal conference win.
Trailing 1-0 with the first quarter winding down, the Monks scored twice in a matter of 36 seconds, as Grimaldi hit pay dirt off a Brendan Barrett (East Sandwich, Mass.) feed at the 1:23 mark and senior Dalton Eldridge (South Gardiner, Maine) potted an unassisted marker with 47 seconds left in the opening frame to stake the hosts to a 2-1 edge.
Unfortunately for the Monks, the lead would not last long, as the visiting Wildcats opened the second stanza scoring with a man-up goal from senior Damian Bandereck (Topsfield, Mass.) at the 12:35 mark and received a pair of tallies from freshman Eric Russo (West Grove, Pa.) to claim a 4-2 advantage heading into intermission.
Johnson & Wales began the third quarter in the same manner in which the visitors closed out the second – with three consecutive goals, as two scores from freshman Max Stone (Burlington, Conn.) sandwiched a Brian Hillenbrand (Portsmouth, R.I.) man-down marker to extend the JWU lead to 7-2.
Grimaldi scored his second goal of the game, a man-up tally off a Jake O'Brien (Andover, Mass.) dish, with 4:06 left in the third quarter, but the Monks failed to generate additional offense and Russo potted his third goal of the game with 7:18 left in the fourth to account for the 8-3 final.
For the Monks, freshman defender Liam Skinner (Irving, Texas) tallied four goals and five caused turnovers and senior defender Colby Main (Jericho, Vt.) added four ground balls and three caused turnovers in the losing effort. Freshman Austin Havu (Buxton, Maine) won six of 14 face-off attempts and forced a pair of turnovers while senior goalie Ethan Rettew (Ephrata, Pa.) freshman Connor Trainor (Franklin, Mass.) split time in the cage, as the former totaled six saves and the latter posted eight in the losing bid.
For the Wildcats, Russo netted three goals with a pair of assists, Stone tallied two goals and two assists with eight ground balls, and freshman Sam Sears (Baltimore, Md.) contributed a goal and three assists in the conference conquest. Freshman goalkeeper JC Guido (Miller Place, N.Y.) recorded 16 saves for the visitors.
Saint Joseph's returns to the turf with a game at Emmanuel College on Tuesday at 7:00 PM.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
