No. 6 Stevens Cruises Past Richard Stockton En Route To Ninth Straight Victory
HOBOKEN, N.J. (March 30, 2011) – Five Ducks finished tied for a team-high with four points, as the Stevens Institute of Technology men’s lacrosse team, ranked sixth on the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Coaches Poll, cruised past visiting Richard Stockton College 26-3 at the De Baun Athletic Complex in Hoboken, N.J. With 14 Ducks scoring goals on the night, Stevens, currently ranked fifth nationally in scoring offense with nearly 17 goals per game, recorded a season-high 26 scores on 69 shots. The undefeated Ducks, now 9-0 on the year, have outscored their last three opponents by a 67-12 margin.
Looking to put Stevens on the board, junior Kevin Rose took a Nicolas Philippi pass before firing it into the Richard Stockton net for the game’s first goal. Ospreys’ senior attack Brent Effenberger (Toms River, N.J.) answered a minute later, quickly deadlocking the game, but the Ducks responded by reeling off five goals over the final 10 and a half minutes of the first to take a 6-1 edge.
Stevens’ midfielder David Williams got the run started with a tally at 10:29, before senior co-captain Chris Laurita netted a score just 35 seconds later to up the margin to 3-1. Sophomore midfielder Brian Seldeen put away the Ducks’ fourth goal at the 6:14 mark of the first quarter, before a Philippi marker and a Brandon Faubert goal with just six seconds left in the frame staked Stevens to a five-point cushion.
Hoping to continue to build on their momentum, the Stevens offense exploded in the second, tallying 10 goals over the final 10:31 of the quarter to take a decisive 16-1 edge into the intermission. Junior Rich Dupras netted the first of four goals on the evening to get things started, before freshman Christian Saley buried a score off a Charlie Cronin assist to make it 8-1.
Dupras then registered his second goal in just over three minutes before a Laurita score and a Michael Steinhauser unassisted tally gave Stevens a double-digit cushion. Rose again got on the board at the 5:24 mark of the second, before consecutive Philippi and Dupras scores extended the Ducks’ lead to 14-1. Junior midfielder Steve Czarnecki and sophomore Harry Dorne closed out Stevens’ big quarter with a pair of goals in the frame’s final minute.
Despite the intermission, the Ducks’ offense continued to stay hot coming out of the break, six more goals in the third to take a 22-1 advantage. After Connor Lynch’s goal in the opening minute of the fourth and final period, Ospreys’ freshman Drew Wright (Wallingford, Pa.) ended a streak of 22-consecutive Stevens’ scores, netting Stockton’s second goal of the evening with 11:52 left in regulation.
The Ducks’ would close out the contest on a 3-1 run, getting a goal from Dorne and a pair of late tallies from freshman attack Garrett Joyal– the first two of his collegiate career – to set a season-high goal total with 26.
Dupras, Rose, Williams, Dorne, and senior midfielder Joey Simone led Stevens with four points apiece, with Dupras netting a team-high four goals and Simone dishing out a squad-best four helpers. Czarnecki, Joyal, Philippi and Laurita each added two goals, with Saley, Steinhauser, Faubert, Seldeen, Lynch, and junior Thomas Karam each tallying a score.
Junior Matt Marks picked-up a game-high six ground balls, while fellow junior Charles DeCarlo went 10-for-13 from the ‘X’ with four ground balls. Senior co-captain and long-stick midfielder Jacob Messimer shared the team lead in caused turnovers with two, while junior goalkeeper Eric Yando made a pair of saves in his ninth victory of the season.
Wright, Effenberger, and junior attack Chris Ordway (Long Valley, N.J.) accounted for the three Richard Stockton goals, while senior midfielder Matt Bologno (Glen Garnder, N.J.) picked up a team-high five ground balls. Freshman Dan Lamela (Brick, N.J.) caused three turnovers, while sophomore goalkeeper Tim Wolcott (Toms River, N.J.) made eight stops in the loss.