WESTMINSTER, Maryland (Mar. 18)- The Saint Vincent men's lacrosse team suffered their first defeat of the 2023 season, falling to the hands of McDaniel, 9-6 in their final non-conference matchup.
 
Matthew Cassidy led the way with Saint Vincent scoring three goals, while also scooping up one ground ball in the loss. Caleb Hawkins tallied three points as well, scoring two goals, while assisting on a goal in the loss as well. Jacob Visalli added two points, scoring one goal and assisting on one goal for the Bearcats.
 
Justin Wodarek tallied one point, picking up an assist for Saint Vincent. Brody McMahon was strong on defense for SVC, scooping up four ground balls and causing four turnovers. Brady Beard also scooped up four ground balls and was 9-19 on faceoffs. Noah Sperling took the loss in net, playing all 60-minutes, making nine saves.
 
McDaniel got the scoring started as they scored the first two goals of the game in the first seven minutes, taking an early 2-0 lead in the first quarter. SVC answered as Cassidy scored his first goal of the day on the man up on an assist from Visalli to cut the Green Terrors lead in half at 2-1.
 
The Green Terrors netted another one with just under five minutes to go in the quarter to take a 3-1 lead. McDaniel's 3-1 lead held as the game entered into the second quarter.
 
In the second quarter it, it was the Bearcats who came out with the hot hand on offense. First, Cassidy netted his second goal of the game to cut the McDaniel lead to 3-2. Then, Hawkins scored his first goal of the game on the man-up to tie the match up at 3-3 with 6:57 remaining in the half.
 
McDaniel gained their lead back just over two minutes later with a goal of their own taking a 4-3 lead. Visalli answered with a goal about 25-seconds later on an assist from Wodarek to tie the game up once again at 4-4. With 2:13 remaining in the half, the Green Terrors struck again, scoring a goal and taking a 5-4 lead into the half.
 
Just 35-seconds out of the half, McDaniel scored another goal to increase their lead to 6-4, but SVC responded. Hawkins scored his second goal of the game just over three minutes later to cut the McDaniel lead back to one at 6-5 with 11:20 remaining in the quarter.
 
Over the final 11-minutes of the quarter, the Green Terrors scored twice and shut the Bearcats out as the Bearcats went into the fourth quarter trailing 8-5.
 
In the fourth quarter SVC got on the board first as Cassidy scored his third on an assist from Hawkins, cutting the Green Terror lead to 8-6. Over the remaining 12-minutes both defenses held strong and McDaniel netted another goal to seal the 9-6 win.
 
The Bearcats outshot the Green Terror 34-31 in the loss, including 19 shots on goal, compared to 18 from McDaniel. The Bearcats were 17-21 on clear attempts and scooped up 25 ground balls as well. Saint Vincent went 2-5 on extra-man opportunities in the loss as well.
 
The Bearcats will now enjoy the next ten days off before entering into their President's Athletic Conference Schedule. Saint Vincent will take on Grove City on Wednesday, March 29, with faceoff scheduled for 4 p.m. at UPMC Field in Latrobe.
  Read Full Article