STANDISH, Maine – Saint Joseph's College (1-6) erased a three-goal halftime deficit with an impressive 13-goal run in a 16-7 victory over University of Southern Maine (2-3) at the SJC Athletics Complex on Wednesday afternoon.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The in-state rivals dueled to a 3-3 tie in the first quarter and the Huskies received second-stanza goals from Nick James (Portland, Maine), Robby Pini (Natick, Mass.) and Tucker Nussinow (Portland, Maine) to stake a 6-3 cushion heading into intermission.
The 6-3 score held true for the first eight minutes of the third period but the Monks – who had not scored since sophomore Timothy Goodfellow (Wayland, Mass.) notched a man-up goal with 1:24 left in the first frame – broke a 24-minute scoring drought when junior Xavier Michaud (Wales, Maine) scored off a Noah Tierney-Honan (Dracut, Mass.) pass with 7:56 left in the third quarter.
As it played out the Michaud tally opened the floodgates for the hosts, as St. Joe's went on to net three goals in a two-minute span with the last strike of the outburst – a Tierney-Honan goal – lifting the Monks to a 7-6 lead with 3:25 remaining in the penultimate period.
Junior Max Lacy (Salisbury, N.H.) closed out the third quarter scoring with an unassisted goal at the 1:08 mark and Saint Joseph's continued the onslaught with eight-consecutive markers in the fourth frame to claim a 16-6 advantage with 1:39 remaining. Southern Maine finally broke free from their second-half scoring slump 20 seconds later when Aman Zusner (Lyman, Maine) hit pay dirt off a Nussinow feed to account for the 16-7 final.
TEAM STATS:
Saint Joseph's held the lead in shots (65-38), shots on goals (32-26) and face-offs (15-10) in the victory.
THE KEEPERS:
SJC junior Brannon Gilbert (Gray, Maine) was phenomenal in net with 19 saves in a complete-game effort while USM goalie Nathan Plourde (Otisfield, Maine) posted 16 stops in a losing effort.
LEADERS – SAINT JOSEPH'S:
- Lacy scored five goals with two assists
- Goodfellow netted three goals with an assist
- Freshman Calvin Heline (Amesbury, Mass.) notched three goals on six shots
- Junior Zavier Balzano (Otisfield, Maine) added three goals and three ground balls
- Junior Sonny Marquis (Londonderry, N.H.) picked up four ground balls with three caused turnovers
- Senior Peyton Bickford (New Boston, N.H.) was 12-for-17 on face-off attempts
LEADERS – SOUTHERN MAINE:
- James tallied two goals and an assist with two ground balls
- Pini added a goal and an assist with 10 ground balls and four caused turnovers
- Schuyler Wetmore (Cumberland Center, Maine) scored a goal with an assist and four ground balls
- Nussinow chipped in with a goal and a pair of assists
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING:
With the win, Saint Joseph's improves to 5-8 all-time versus the University of Southern Maine and has now defeated the Huskies in four-consecutive meetings dating back to the 2018 campaign.
NEXT!
Saint Joseph's will play at Norwich University on Saturday in a conference contest slated to start at 1:00 PM.
