GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – The third-seeded Saint Anselm College men's lacrosse team had its record-breaking season come to a close on Sunday afternoon. The Hawks fell to top-seeded Adelphi University, 12-9, in the NCAA Division II Men's Lacrosse Championship Semifinals. The win sends the Panthers (16-2) to the national title game next Sunday versus Lenoir-Rhyne University, the defending Division II national champions, who defeated the University of Tampa in the other Semifinal, 15-14. The Hawks' season comes to a close with a 12-5 overall record and a 7-2 record in conference play.
Score: No. 6 (3 seed) Saint Anselm 9, No. 4 (1 seed) Adelphi 12
Records: No. 6 (3 seed) Saint Anselm 12-5; No. 4 (1 seed) Adelphi 16-2
Location: Garden City, N.Y. (Motamed Field)
Date: Sunday, May 19, 2024
Attendance: 1,375
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Adelphi opened the scoring with a goal by Kyle Lewis to take an early 1-0 lead. Shortly after, senior Jake Davis (Franklin, Mass.) notched the first goal of the afternoon for Saint Anselm, his 36th of the season, to tie the game up at 1-1.
- The Panthers continued to push their attack, scoring the next three goals featuring two from Logan Tucker to take a 4-1 advantage.
- Hawks freshman goaltender Finn Granara (Reading, Mass.), making his seventh start in the cage, made two late saves to keep the Panthers off the scoreboard at the end of the first quarter.
- Braden Donnellan extended Adelphi's lead to four goals with a score in the opening minute of the second quarter.
- Davis quickly responded for Saint Anselm, netting his second goal of the day off a helper from fifth-year Jack Andrews (Cumberland, R.I.) to make it 5-2.
- The Hawks started to gain attacking momentum following Davis's goal and found the back of the cage again at the 6:30 mark thanks to junior Joe Lombardi (Holliston, Mass.) to cut the Panthers lead down to two goals.
- After a timeout, Adelphi answered with back-to-back scores to claim a five goal edge with less then two minutes remaining in the first half.
- With time winding down in the half, Granara collected the ball and tossed it ahead to Andrews, who caught it around midfield, ran straight towards goal, and fired a shot into the top corner to make it a 7-4 Panthers lead heading into halftime.
- The Panthers came out strong to start the second half, outshooting the Hawks 12-6 and scoring the only three goals of the quarter to go up 10-4 in the contest.
- Andrews found the back of the cage for the second time just 20 seconds into the fourth quarter to cut Adelphi's lead back down to five.
- After both teams exchanged shots, Davis capitalized on an extra-man opportunity with senior Nick Larsen (Northborough, Mass.) earning the assist to make it 10-6.
- Junior Colin Mulvey (Reading, Mass.) then buried a shot past Panther goaltender Dylan Renner off a feed from senior Noah Larson (Northborough, Mass.) to narrow the Adelphi's advantage down to just three goals.
- Shortly after Kyle Steinbach disrupted the Hawks offense with a score at the 4:58 mark, Saint Anselm continued to battle in the final minutes of the contest as Andrews and Mulvey each netted one goal apiece to make it an 11-9 game.
- The Hawks fired off eight shot attempts in the last three minutes of the game with Renner posting three stops for the home team. Donnellan netted his hat trick with 1:32 left on an empty net goal to seal Adelphi's win by a final score of 12-9.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Despite the score, Saint Anselm outshot Adelphi by a 54-41 margin and held a 26-23 edge in shots on goal in the game.
- The Hawks also held a 43-33 advantage in total ground balls and an 8-5 margin in caused turnovers. Graduate student Ryan Slattery (North Andover, Mass.), senior Henry Alford (Southborough, Mass.), and senior Mack Hicklen (Wilbraham, Mass.) each ended the contest with two caused turnovers apiece.
- The Panthers committed 13 turnovers, while the Hawks had 14 giveaways.
- Adelphi successfuly cleared 22-of-25 attempts in comparison to Saint Anselm with 13-of-16 clear attempts.
- From the faceoff spot, the Hawks won 17 total faceoffs while the Panthers won just eight in the contest. Sophomore Quinn Gannon (Scituate, Mass.) won 13-of-15 faceoff attempts with nine ground balls while fifth-year Craig Yannone (Lynnfield, Mass.) won three and freshman Evan Spillane (East Longmeadow, Mass.) won one.
- Saint Anselm fended off two Adelphi man-up opportunities and went 1-for-4 with the extra-man.
- Davis and Andrews led the team with three goals apiece, combining for 22 total shot attempts and 13 shots on goal. Mulvey tallied two scores for two points along with two ground balls, while Lombardi netted one goal as well.
- Noah Larson dished out a pair of assists while Andrews, Granara, and Nick Larsen each recorded one assist apiece for the Hawks.
- Andrews became the program's all-time leader in career goals following his three-score performance on Sunday. He ends his career with 141 career goals to pass Larry DeFranco's record of 138 goals. Andrews is also the all-time leader in career man-up goals (25) and is tied for fifth all-time in career points (166).
- Granara posted 11 saves in the cage for Saint Anselm, allowing 11 goals after playing a majority of the game. Fifth-year Will Davis (Franklin, Mass.) checked into the game late and allowed just one goal.
- Renner recorded 17 saves in the cage for Adelphi, allowing nine goals after playing the full 60 minutes.
- This marked the 19th meeting between these two programs in the all-time series as Adelphi remains undefeated against Saint Anselm.
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