Men's Lacrosse Takes Down Norwich, 11-6 in GNAC Opener

NEWTON, Mass. (3/8/14) – The Lasell College men's lacrosse team knocked off defending Great Northeast Athletic Conference champion Norwich University by a score of 11-6 on Saturday afternoon at Grellier Field. The victory pushes the Lasers record to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in the GNAC while Norwich slides to 0-4 for the season and 0-1 in conference action.

Eight different players found their way into the scoring column for Lasell, led by sophomore Andrew Suh (Colchester, Conn.) who finished with two goals and three assists. Senior Dylan Gray (Bayport, N.Y.) added a pair of goals for the Lasers as did sophomore Casey Sullivan (Waterford, Conn.) and sophomore Pat Egan (Glen Rock, N.J.) notched a goal and two assists in the victory. Suh and Jason Donovan (Weymouth, Mass.) each scooped up a team-high five ground balls for the Lasers while David Walen (Springfield, Mass.) saved nine shots to earn the victory between the pipes for Lasell.

Ian Mendoza (Mount Airy, Md.) recorded a hat-trick for Norwich and Ian Thomas (Barrington, R.I.) scored two goals and setup another two scores for the Cadets. Andrew Dustin (Canterbury, N.H.) scooped up a game-high seven groundballs for Norwich and Andrew Bracy (Carthage, N.Y.) collected four ground balls while winning 12 out of 18 face-offs for the visitors. Mark Paradiso (Westford, Mass.) took the loss in goal for Norwich, recording 10 saves in the contest.

Norwich opened the scoring early, as Mendoza scored on a pass from Seth Fuller (Wheaton,. Ill.) with 13:28 left in the opening quarter and Medoza added his second only a few seconds later as the Cadets capitalized on a man-up situation to go ahead 2-0 less than two minutes into the ball game. Lasell settled the action and an unassisted goal from the Lasers Dylan Fernandes (Billerica, Mass.) with just over six minutes left in the first quarter and then Lasell evened the score at 2-2 when a Fernandes shot was saved by Paradiso but Suh cleaned up the rebound and finished his first of the contest. Mendoza completed his hat-trick with just over a minute to play in the first when he scored on a feed from Thomas to put the Cadets back in front 3-2.

Lasell came out hot to start the second quarter, using a man-up goal from Sullivan set up by Pat Egan to tie the score at 3-3 before Suh found Donovan for a goal to put the Lasers in ahead 4-3 with just over 10 minutes left in the half. Egan set up Dylan Gray for another man-up goal moments later and then Egan snapped the net for an unassisted tally to give the hosts a 6-3 lead with 6:53 left in the period. Mike Lavery capitalized on a man-up opportunity for Norwich to make it 6-4 but the Lasers used goals from Gray and Suh to take an 8-4 edge into the locker room at the half.

Norwich scored five minutes into the third quarter to make it an 8-5 game but the Lasers responded with a pretty goal when freshmen Anthony Saitta (Derry, N.H.) setup classmate Josh Gallant (Hampstead, N.H.) to put Lasell back on top 9-5.  Casey Sullivan added his second of the game in an extra man opportunity when Suh found him cutting to the cage to give Lasell a 10-5 lead going into the fourth quarter. Ian Thomas scored his second with just under nine minutes left for Norwich, but Lasell would put the game away when Suh found Aaron LaPorte (Gorham, Maine) with less than five minutes left to produce the final 11-6 margin.

Norwich will travel to Bowdoin College on Tuesday March 18^th for a non-conference tilt while Lasell will host Plymouth State on Tuesday March 11^th at 3:30 p.m.