Richmond 20, VMI 1
RICHMOND, Va. - Richmond men’s lacrosse reset the record books Saturday in a 20-1 home win over VMI in the first-ever Southern Conference lacrosse contest at Robins Stadium. The Spiders improved to 3-2 on the year and 1-0 in the league, sending the Keydets to an 0-5 start, 0-1 in the SoCon.
Six Spiders had multi-goal games, while seven Spiders scored their first goal of the season, including the first career goals for freshmen Eric Haehl, Dean Roseman and Jack Worstell.
It was the first time in school history the Spiders blanked an opponent in three different quarters, while the one goal allowed and 20 goals scored were both program bests in the 22-game history of UR lacrosse.
The Spider defense held VMI scoreless for 51:30, thanks in part to forcing 29 VMI turnovers. Richmond outshot the Keydets 52-19 and got to 43 ground balls, allowing 30 to VMI. Richmond tied the school mark with 17 caused turnovers in the game, matching the output from the Wagner home win last March 21.
Starting sophomore attackman J.P. Forester led all players with three goals and collected four assists, setting a new school record with seven points. It was his fourth career hat trick, second-most in program history. He was one assist away from tying the school record, and he is the first Spider ever with at least three goals and three assists in a single game.
Sophomore attackman Dan Ginestro produced the first SoCon goal in league history, scoring less than 90 seconds in on an assist from Jackson Cabot. The assist was the first of a career-high two for Cabot, starting as a long-pole midfielder for the Spiders in the contest.
Two minutes later, Richmond’s leading scorers got involved in the contest. Redshirt senior Mickey Hofmeister scored with 11:06 remaining in the first on an assist from Mitch Goldberg. The goal was Hofmeister’s ninth of the season. He graduated from VMI last May and transferred to Richmond for his final year of eligibility. He scored twice in the game and collected his first Richmond assist in the contest.
Goldberg later got his team-leading 13th goal of the season.
The Spiders scored 19 times before giving up the lone VMI goal in the game, with 8:30 remaining in the contest.
The Spiders improved their scoring average to nearly 12 goals per game in the win, pulling their goals-against average down below seven.
Starting goalie Benny Pugh got the win, shutting out the Keydets over his 42:40 seconds of field time. He collected seven saves in the victory to improve to 3-2. He is the goalie of record in all nine program wins.
VMI starter Evan Windisch took the loss (0-5) after allowing 11 first half goals. He made 13 saves in the contest.
The Spiders will play their first road game of the season next Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Mount St. Mary’s. They will return home versus second-ranked North Carolina next Saturday, March 14, at 1 p.m.
Mount St. Mary's 7, Furman 6
GREENVILLE, S.C. – With the game tied at six with just 2:05 to go in the fourth quarter, Mount St. Mary’s netted the game-winning goal to take the 7-6 victory over Furman on Saturday afternoon in Paladin Stadium. The win moves the Mountaineers to 2-3 on the season, while the loss drops the Paladins to 1-5.
Furman was led by freshman Jonah Moore with three goals, all in the first half, while Robbie Betchley III, Michael Toto, and Patrick DiMento each added one. Clay Adams dished out a team-high two assists, while Reilly McDermott tallied 10 saves.
Mount St. Mary’s tallied seven goals by six different players, including two from Justin Gosnell, who also added an assist. Goalie Matt Vierheller tallied 14 saves with just six goals allowed.
Spencer Smith put Mount St. Mary’s on the board first, just 1:30 into the game, before the Paladins tied the score at one on a goal by Jonah Moore with 8:33 left in the first. The Mount responded with a goal from Justin Gosnell with 5:15 remaining and looked to be taking the 2-1 lead in to the second, but Moore netted his second goal of the period with just 19 seconds remaining to tie the game at two.
Furman grabbed its first lead of the game with 12:35 left before halftime, as Betchley scored his eighth goal of the year to put Furman ahead 3-2. Back-to-back goals by Mount St. Mary’s gave the Mountaineers the lead back at 4-3 with 4:10 remaining in the period, before Moore completed the first-half hat trick with 2:40 left in the period to send the teams to the locker room tied at four.
Both defenses came out strong in the second half, not allowing a goal until Toto gave Furman the 5-4 lead with 5:17 left in the period. Mount St. Mary’s again responded with 1:49 on the clock, sending the game to the final period tied at five.
The Mountaineers regained the lead at 6-5 just 46 seconds into the fourth, but DiMento scored his first goal of the season with one second of man-up opportunity left to tie the game at six. The teams continued to battle and the game looked to be headed to overtime, but Clayton Wainer scored the game winner with 2:05 on the clock to grab the win for Mount St. Mary’s.
Furman is back in action next Saturday, March 14, hosting Bellarmine at 2:00 p.m. in the school’s first Southern Conference game.
Marist 10, High Point 9
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The High Point University men's lacrosse team made a furious comeback attempt in the fourth quarter, but fell 10-9 to Marist in Kenney Stadium on Saturday.
The Panthers (3-4) held a 5-3 lead midway through the second quarter, but a 7-0 run by the Red Foxes (3-1) allowed the home team to build a 10-5 lead in the third quarter. HPU scored the final four goals and had one last shot from sophomore Michael LeClair that sailed high as the clock expired.
Its dynamic juniors Matt Thistle and Dan Lomas led HPU offensively. Thistle posted four goals to extend his point-scoring streak to 22 games. Meanwhile, Lomas made it 23 straight games with a goal as he tallied three scores and an assist on the day. The longest two streaks in the nation were snapped on Saturday, so Lomas' owns the longest active goal-scoring streak in the nation.
Junior Zack Price and LeClair had the team's other goals. Price's was his first point of the season and LeClair had two points (1g, 1a). Junior James Dunn got the first assist of his career while redshirt-junior Tyler Cook also picked up an assist.
HPU won the ground ball battle by a +12 (41-29) margin and attempted more 20 more shots (50-30). However, the Red Foxes got 63 percent (19-of-30) of its shots on the goal. On the other side, HPU got only 56 percent (28-of-50) to Marist's goalie Scarcello.
Scarcello made 19 stops for the home team while redshirt-senior Austin Geisler made nine for the Purple & White, including one in the last 30 seconds to give the offense one last chance to tie the score.
At the face-off 'X,' junior Jamie Piluso went 12-of-22 (55 percent) and led the team with six ground balls. Thistle tallied five ground balls and Price registered four ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Marist jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the blink of an eye as Drew Nesmith scored at the 14:23 and 13:51 marks. Price got HPU on the board with his first goal of the season off an assist from LeClair (2-1, 12:12). However, the Red Foxes responded seconds later to retake their two-goal advantage (3-1, 11:23).
But Lomas had the answer. The Burlington, Ontario native notched goals off assists from Dunn and Cook to tie the score at 3-all with 3:32 left in the first quarter. Thistle extended the Panthers run to 4-0 with a goal to close the first quarter and another score early in the second stanza (5-3. 13:35).
Marist was able to rebound and score the final two goals of the half to send the game to the break tied at 5-5. From there, The Red Foxes extended their run 6-0 as they posted four goals in the first six minutes of the third quarter to take a 9-5 lead. The advantage swelled to five as Colin Joka scored at the 4:58 mark to make it 10-5.
Thistle stopped the run with his third goal of the game with 3:54 remaining in the third quarter (10-6). The Chelmsford, Mass. native scored his fourth goal off an assist from Lomas to make it 10-7 with 5:38 to go. LeClair got a shot passed Scarcello to cut the deficit to two (1:18) before Lomas made it 10-9 with 1:07 remaining.
Piluso won the ensuing face-off and Thistle and Lomas each got off shots before Marist got possession. Geisler made a huge save with 28 seconds left, but HPU could only get off one more shot as LeClair's shot sailed over the goal as the clock expired.
The Panthers will stay on the road as they open up their conference season at Mercer on Saturday, March 14 at 1 p.m. in Macon, Ga.