No. 10 Stevens Pulls Away From Men's Lacrosse, 16-7

Photo, recap courtesy of Springfield College

Springfield, Mass. - March 2, 2019 - In a rematch of last year's NCAA Division III Championship Second Round contest, the Springfield College men's lacrosse team was defeated by Stevens, 16-7, on Saturday afternoon at Stagg Field.

Springfield, which was receiving votes in this week's USILA National Poll, dropped to 1-1, while the Ducks, currently ranked 10th in the nation, improved to 3-0.

Cole Finerty (Kengsington, N.H.) made 16 saves in the setback as Springfield was outshot 54-35 in the contest.  Jack Vail (Franklin, Mass.) totaled two goals and an assist, while Cameron Glover (Brunswick, Maine), Joe Hawley (Poulsbo, Wash.), and Tommy Nash (Massapequa, N.Y.) each had a goal and an assist.  Joseph Cameron (Stoneham, Mass.) went 12-for-22 from the "X", picking up seven ground balls.

For Stevens, Max Bailey (Millersville, Md.) totaled three goals and three assists to lead the way, while Dean Peluso (Seaford, N.Y.) recorded two goals and three assists, and Eric Radbourne (Buelph, Ontario) tallied a game-high four goals.  Both Brendan Monteleone (Mountain Lakes, N.J.) and Ryan Gebhardt (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) had three goals and Carson White (Downington, Pa.) totaled 15 stops in goal.  The visitors owned a 41-29 edge in ground balls, and went 22-for-24 on clear attempts.

The Ducks controlled much of the action in the early going, taking the first six shots of the game and eventually netting the game's first goal at the 9:24 mark when Gebhardt ripped a man-up strike off a look from Peluso.  Under a minute later, Cole Pecora (North Haven, Conn.) took a terrific pass from Lucas Habich (Little Silver, N.J.) and buried a shot low to even the contest up.  Hawley put the Pride on top 2-1 as he wrapped around the cage off an assist from Nash and just 33 seconds later, and Vail turned beat White from eight yards out to make it a 3-1 game with 6:22 on the clock in the first.

Springfield pushed its advantage to 4-1 with 10:56 remaining in the half after Anthony Sullivan (Westfield, Mass.) delivered a great caused turnover and found Vail ahead in transition, before getting the ball back on the crease for an acrobatic finish.

However, after the Ducks were able to stave off a Springfield two-man advantage at the 7:45 mark, Gebhardt buried a nearly identical man-up goal as his first with 6:27 on the clock to kickstart a five-goal surge by the visitors.  Radbourne and Peluso each finished off assists from Bailey 50 seconds apart to knot the game at four, before an unassisted goal from Gebhardt at 42 seconds and a rebound finish by Peluso with less than a second remaining in the half gave the Ducks a 6-4 cushion.

Radbourne pumped in two more goals to start the second half to make it an 8-4 game with 10:53 on the clock before Glover scored the Pride's first goal in over 16 minutes on a tremendous shot on the run with 9:30 to play.  After the visitors added two more goals, Vail converted a man-up goal and Nash found the back of the cage with 1:15 remaining as the Pride went into the fourth trailing 10-7.
The final 15 minutes belonged to the visitors though, as the Ducks score five goals on 12 shots, including three from Monteleone and a pair from Bailey, as they pulled out the 16-7 win. 

Springfield will face another nationally-ranked team on Tuesday when it travels to compete in the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University against RIT, who is ranked third in the country in the most recent USILA Poll.  Face-off is slated for 7 pm.