NEWTON, Mass. – The Mount Ida College men's lacrosse team improved to 8-0 all-time against Saint Joseph's College of Maine with a 17-7 victory on Saturday afternoon in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action at Alumni Field.
The Mustangs scored five times in each of the second and fourth periods and outscored their opponents in all four quarters, improving to 2-4 on the season and moving even with the Monks (5-3) at 2-1 in the GNAC standings.
A balanced Mustangs attack saw four-point days from sophomore Chad Coehlo (Salem, Mass.) and junior Lucas Stralka (East Greenwich, R.I.), and got multiple goals from six different sources.
Patrick Hills (Colchester, Conn.) scored a hat-trick for the visitors and fellow freshman Brendan Barrett (East Sandwich, Mass.) added a goal and three assists in a losing effort.
The Mustangs, who held a 50-27 edge in shots and a 55-25 ground ball advantage, grabbed a 3-0 lead on goals by Jon Berry (Cichester, N.H.), Wyatt Sullivan (Arlington, Mass.) and Chris Kidger (Townsend, Mass.) before Hills opened the scoring for the Monks and Matt Donnell (Watertown, Mass.) pulled the visitors to within a goal with fifty-three seconds left in the opening period.
Stralka, Joe Galante (Framingham, Mass.) and freshman Austin Phillips (Haverhill, Mass.), who scored three times in the game, extended the Mustang lead back to 6-2. Peter Hardy (Tyngsboro, Mass.) also scored two straight goals in the second period but Barrett tallied with just four seconds left in the period after he had set up teammate Dalton Eldridge (South Gardiner, Maine) earlier in the frame, and the Mount Ida lead at the break was 8-4.
Saint Joseph's cut the lead to two goals, 8-6, with strikes by Hills and Brad Loomis (Saunderstown, R.I.) to start the third period, but Mount Ida would score the next seven goals, bridging the gap into the final fifteen minutes. Sullivan, Coehlo, Phillips, Stralka, Berry, and Galante each struck in succession before Phillips ended his night with his third goal at 9:19 of the fourth, which gave the Mustangs a 15-6 lead.
Marcus Donahue (Braintree, Mass.) notched his first collegiate goal and sophomore Shane Flaherty (Halifax, Mass.) ended the scoring for Mount Ida, with both assists coming from sophomore Matt Hoffman (Brewster, N.Y.), who grabbed six ground balls in the victory.
Mount Ida also dominated on the face-off dot, where they won 22 of 28 draws, led by 18 wins from freshman Alex Zito (Marlboro, Conn.), who had 11 ground balls.
Freshman goalie Cam Hayward (Derry, N.H.) made two saves in the win to earn his first collegiate victory (1-2), while sophomore Tyler McElreath (Upton, Mass.) made four saves in his relief.
Cam Zaborowski (Littleton, Mass.) went 5-18 at the dot for the Monks and they got five caused turnovers from Liam Skinner (Irving, Texas) and four caused turnovers from Colby Main (Jericho, Vt.).
Senior Ethan Rettew (Ephrata, Pa.) took the loss, falling to 0-1 despite making 18 saves for the Monks.
Mount Ida continues their GNAC schedule on Tuesday afternoon when they host Norwich in a rematch of last year's GNAC quarterfinal game won by the Cadets in Northfield.
Saint Joseph's Maine hosts Lasell next Wednesday under the lights at 7:30 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.
