STANDISH, Maine – Freshman Tiger Hopkins (Leeds, Maine) set a new program record with nine assists to help propel Saint Joseph's College (1-5) past New England College (0-4), 19-2, in a non-conference men's lacrosse contest at the SJC Athletics Complex on Saturday afternoon.
With the victory, SJC Head Coach Bill Cosentino – now in his seventh season at St. Joe's – became the winningest coach in Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse history. With 42 wins in six-plus seasons (including two cut short due to the pandemic), he has surpassed former Head Coach Mike Edgar, who was the Monks' inaugural sideline general and won 41 contests in six full seasons.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Monks kicked off the scoring 2:15 after the opening whistle when senior Max Lacy (Salisbury, N.H.) netted his first of four goals on the afternoon. St. Joe's held a 6-0 lead after the first quarter and saw sophomore Will Levesque (Marlow, N.H.) and Lacy score 47 seconds apart 10 minutes into the second stanza to lift the hosts to an 8-0 advantage.
The Pilgrims managed to net their only two goals of the game in a 1:06 span, as Thomas Norton (Mansfield, Mass.) put his team on the board with a man-up strike off a Devon Saeger (Chester Springs, Penn.) feed with 4:11 before the break and Sam Crary (Newburyport, Mass.) made it an 8-2 game after hitting pay dirt off a Matt Daley pass 66 seconds later.
Freshman Matt Denman (Brentwood, N.H.) ended the short NEC run with 2:17 left in the second quarter when he scored his second goal of the game off a Tim Goodfellow (Wayland, Mass.) pass.
St. Joe's continued to assault the scoreboard with seven goals in the third period and capped the game scoring with man-up goals from Lacy and Goodfellow and an even-strength tally from Hopkins in the fourth frame.
TEAM STATS:
Saint Joseph's held considerable advantages in shots (63-15), shots on goal (43-8), ground balls (35-27), and caused turnovers (29-6) while the Pilgrims won 16 of 25 face-offs in the non-conference tilt. NEC committed 43 turnovers, including 14 without cause, while the Monks coughed up the ball 20 times in the triumph.
THE KEEPERS:
SJC senior Brannon Gilbert (Gray, Maine) allowed two goals and turned away four shots in 49:55 between the pipes to earn the victory while sophomore Liam Greene (Mansfield, Mass.) posted a pair of stops in 10:05 of mop-up duty.
NEC sophomore netminder Connor Almstrom (Cumberland, R.I.) played well in the setback with 21 saves in 51:25 in net. Sophomore Hunter Sutcliffe (Warwick, R.I.) allowed a goal and made three saves in 8:35 of relief.
LEADERS – SAINT JOSEPH'S:
- Hopkins tallied two goals and nine assists and broke the former SJC record of eight assists, which was achieved by three players, most recently Jonathan Horgan '12 in a win over UMaine-Farmington on March 23rd, 2011
- Goodfellow netted three goals with four assists
- Lacy netted four goals on five shots
- Senior Xavier Michaud (Wales, Maine) scored twice and picked up three ground balls
- Levesque added a pair of goals
- Freshman Nick Wesley (Peabody, Mass.) scooped up 10 ground balls and six caused turnovers
- Sophomore Anthony Samiotes (Hampstead, N.H.) chipped in with four ground balls and seven caused turnovers
- Senior Connor Bogdanski (Southington, Conn.) contributed four ground balls and five caused turnovers
LEADERS – NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE:
- Sophomore Cam Hebert (Plantation, Fla.) won 16-of-25 face-off attempts and picked up nine ground balls
- Freshman Jackson Kain (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) picked up five ground balls, junior Thomas Doe (Windham, N.H.) chimed in with four ground balls and two caused turnovers, and junior Kyle Hamilton (Londonderry, N.H.) notched three ground balls
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING:
With the victory, Saint Joseph's improves to 3-1 all-time versus New England College.
NEXT!
Saint Joseph's will play three-consecutive away games starting with a 1:00 PM contest at Dean College in the Monks' 2023 conference opener next Saturday. St. Joe's doesn't return home until Tuesday, March 28th when Lasell University comes to town for a 4:00 PM start.
