MEADVILLE, Pa. (April 15) – Fueled by a big third quarter, the Saint Vincent men's lacrosse team improved to 10-2 on the season with a 15-3 road win over Presidents' Athletic Conference foe Allegheny College.
Holding a 3-2 lead at halftime, the Bearcats exploded with nine goals over the third quarter, before outscoring the Gators 3-0 over the final stanza to roll to the win.
Nine different Saint Vincent players registered at least one point, while four tallied three or more. Matthew Cassidy (one goal, four assists) and Jonathan Nagy (four goals, one assist) each recorded five points. Cassidy's five-point output included the milestone 100th point of his career, while Nagy's five points and four goals were both career highs.
Liam McCall also notched a career-high with four points (two goals, two assists), while Jordan Billet recorded three points, on two goals and three assists.
Caleb Hawkins was a fourth Bearcat with a multi-goal night, scoring twice, while Jacob Visalli, Andrew Coholich, Justin Wodarek and Jacob Crumling all scored one goal apiece.
The Bearcats outshot the Gators by a 40-24 margin for the game.
Behind a 10-for-17 performance on faceoffs, Brady Beard led Saint Vincent with five ground balls. Brody McMahon collected four ground balls and Crumling and Max Schuler three apiece.
Schuler paced the SVC defense with two caused turnovers, while McMahon, Wodarek and Hawkins had one caused turnover apiece.
Noah Sperling went the distance in goal and finished with seven saves to earn the win.
Nagy scored the game's first goal two minutes into play, but despite out-shooting the Gators 13-4 in the opening quarter, the Bearcats were only able to add one more first quarter goal, again scored by Nagy with 2:56 left in the quarter.
The defensive theme continued through the second quarter, with the Gators cutting the deficit to 2-1 with their first goal, scored by Aidan D'Amato, with 8:01 left in the half. Sixty-three seconds later, Caleb Hawkins scored his first of the night to give the Bearcats a 3-1 lead, but the Gators would enter halftime with momentum, beating the second quarter buzzer with a goal to make it a 3-2 game at the intermission.
The Bearcats promptly took charge coming out of the break, with Hawkins, Wodarek and McCall all scoring in the opening two minutes of the third quarter to quickly open up a 6-2 lead. Nagy completed the hat trick with 10:05 left in the quarter to increase the SVC lead to five, and the lead would continue to grow. Over the final seven minutes of the quarter, Billet scored twice while Cassidy and Visalli each found the net once to give the Bearcats a 12-3 lead.
The lead increased to double digits when Nagy scored his fourth of the night 43 seconds into the fourth quarter, before Crumling and McCall closed out the evening's scoring with goals at 11:21 and 6:59, respectively. Behind three Sperling saves, the Bearcats kept the Gators off of the scoreboard for the final 15 minutes.
The Bearcats will be back in action on Tuesday, April 18, traveling to West Virginia to take on Bethany College in a 4 p.m. PAC matchup.
