GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – The nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College men's lacrosse team came out on the losing end of a 15-14 shootout at Adelphi University on Saturday.
Saint Anselm, the No. 11 team in NCAA Division II (USILA), falls to 3-2 overall on the year and to 1-2 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents. Adelphi, ranked No. 3 in the country in the same poll, moves to 5-0 and to 3-0 versus the league.
Down by a 12-7 lead late in the third quarter, the Hawks scored seven of the game's final 10 goals to make it a 15-14 deficit with 2:20 to go in regulation. The Saint Anselm defense stood tall down the stretch, forcing two shots wide before Adelphi turned it over via a shot clock violation.
Getting possession with 54 seconds left, the Hawks got one final shot off but it was saved by Adelphi netminder Dylan Renner with just 13 seconds remaining. Adelphi was able to hold on to take down the Hawks by a one-goal margin.
Junior Jack Robinson (Wilbraham, Mass.), graduate student Sean Tomaszewski (Arlington, Mass.) and sophomore Noah Larsen (Northborough, Mass.) led the way for Saint Anselm with four-point performances. Tomaszewski paced the team with three goals while Robinson and Larsen recorded two goals and two assists.
Senior Kyle Fisher (Nashua, N.H.) had four caused turnovers and three ground balls while junior Ryan Slattery (North Andover, Mass.) forced three miscues by Adelphi, reeling in four ground balls. Graduate student Will Palmer (Concord, Mass.) collected five ground balls for the Hawks in the midfield.
Senior netminder CJ Hart (Reading, Mass.) conceded 15 goals on the day, making 13 saves in total against the nationally-ranked Panthers. Renner piled up 11 stops to earn the win for Adelphi.
Adelphi put home the first three goals of the game, forcing Saint Anselm to play catch-up throughout the game. Down by a 5-2 margin after the first quarter, the Hawks tied the game at six late in the first half as Tomaszewski had back-to-back markers with under nine minutes left.
The Panthers scored six of the game's next seven goals, upping the lead to 12-7 with 8:11 remaining in the third quarter. Saint Anselm tallied three consecutive goals from Tomaszewski, Larsen and senior Jack Wells (Melrose, Mass.) to trim the Adelphi lead to 12-10 with 1:38 to go in the third.
Two consecutive goals from Adelphi spanning the third and fourth quarters put the Hawks down by four, 14-10, before Saint Anselm strung three in a row together off the sticks of Robinson, Nick Larsen (Northborough, Mass.), and senior Thomas Ackil (Southborough, Mass.) with 6:19 in regulation to go.
1:04 after Ackil's clutch goal, what proved to be the game-winning goal was scored by Adelphi to create a 15-13 lead for the hosts. A late goal with 2:20 left by Nick Larsen would be the final marker of the day as Saint Anselm was not able to put home more than one goal in the final five-plus minutes.
Ackil's fifth goal of the season give him six points, a career-high mark.
