SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College men's lacrosse team was handed a 17-14 loss to Wilmington (Del.) University on Wednesday in a neutral-site contest played at Springfield College.
The No. 12-ranked Hawks even their overall record at 3-3 while Wilmington, receiving votes in the same poll, improve to 5-3 on the year. Saint Anselm welcomes Bentley to the Hilltop on Saturday, Apr. 2 for a 3 p.m. showdown with the Falcons.
The Wildcats put home the first four goals of the game before Saint Anselm responded with four of its own, tying the game. Wilmington stunned the Hawks with five consecutive goals to begin the second quarter and never looked back, never letting its lead shrink to below two goals from that point forward.
Sophomore Nick Larsen (Northborough, Mass.) produced three goals (career-high) and two assists for five points (3-2=5) with senior Jack Wells (Melrose, Mass.) and sophomore Noah Larsen (Northborough, Mass.) recording four-point efforts. Wells set a career-high mark in point production by matching a single-game personal best in goal scoring.
Graduate student Sean Tomaszewski (Arlington, Mass.) scored three goals for the Hawks and junior Ryan Slattery (North Andover, Mass.) posted two caused turnovers with four ground balls. Tomaszewski reached the 50-goal milestone acrsos his five-season career on the Hilltop.
Giovanni Marino had an explosive game for the Wildcats on offense, scoring nine of his team's 17 goals and adding an assist for 10 points (9-1=10). He set the pace early for Wilmington, notching the first three goals of the game to create the 3-0 advantage just 5:07 into play.
Back-to-back man-up strikes from Tomaszewski and Wells followed, halving the Wildcats lead to 4-2 with 4:37 to go. Tomaszewski added his second goal of the stanza with 23 seconds left, tying the game at four heading into the second quarter.
Marino potted two more goals and added an assist as Wilmington scored the first five goals of the second quarter, capturing a game-high lead of 9-4 with 8:05 to go in the first half. The Hawks responded well with three straight markers before a man-up goal from Wilmington in the final 30 seconds of the period created a 10-7 lead at the half for the Wildcats.
Wilmington kept Saint Anselm at arm's length to open the third quarter by scoring five of the first eight goals of the new half, leading by five goals, 15-10, with 12:36 left in regulation time.
Saint Anselm scored four of the game's final six goals but could not close the gap – with the Hawks goaltender pressuring the ball in the waning seconds, Wilmington added an empty-net goal with 10 ticks left in the game to create the final three-goal margin of victory.
The Hawks fired 18 of the fourth quarter's 27 shots and could not complete the comeback.
CJ Hart (Reading, Mass.) made 11 saves in goal for the Hawks, drawing the loss. Jason Roland made 13 saves on 27 attempts for Wilmington, earning the victory in net.
