GREENVILLE, Pa. (April 28) - A strong second half performance allowed the Saint Vincent men's lacrosse team to earn an 11-6 road victory over the Thiel College Tomcats in Ohio River Lacrosse Conference play.
The win is the 11th straight overall for the Bearcats, who finish the ORLC regular season with a perfect 10-0 record and move to 14-3 overall in 2018. Thiel finishes its season with an 8-7 overall mark and a 6-4 league record.
Saint Vincent opened up an early lead when
Frank Casile and
Jeremy Kennedy scored early tallies. Thiel would respond with a pair of goals, including a man-down score to tie the game at 2-2 after the first quarter.
The Bearcat offense went to work in the second quarter, scoring four straight goals over a six minute period.
Hunter Sharp,
Ben Price, Casile and Kennedy tallied the consecutive scores to give the Bearcats a multi-goal cushion. The host Tomcats scored in the final minute of the half to trim the deficit to 6-3 after 30 minutes of play.
After Thiel opened the third quarter with a goal to make the score 6-4, Casile and Price scored back-to-back to extend the lead to 8-4 at the 6:24 mark. The Tomcats hung around a little longer, scoring the final goal of the third and the opening goal of the fourth to make it 8-6 with 8:05 left in the game.
However, Saint Vincent locked down defensively from that point, shutting out Thiel for the remainder of the contest. During that time, Casile, Kennedy and
Stone Haberstroh all netted goals to finish off the 11-6 victory.
Casile scored a season-high four goals and picked up five ground balls. Kennedy continued his strong season with a hat trick, while
Anthony Hogeback registered two assists. Defensively,
Michael Grus picked up three ground balls and caused two turnovers, while
Matt Wilson caused three Thiel turnovers.
Brandon Martin made a season-high 16 saves in net for the Bearcats.
Saint Vincent will enter the ORLC Tournament as the #1 seed. The Bearcats will host #4 seed Grove City College at Chuck Noll Field on Wednesday, May 2. The Bearcats defeated Grove City, 6-5, in double overtime back on March 14 at Robert E. Thorn Field.
