Men's Lacrosse Staves off Anna Maria Upset Bid with 13-9 Win

PAXTON, Mass. (4/12/14) – The Lasell College men's lacrosse team picked up a 13-9 Great Northeast Athletic Conference victory over Anna Maria College on Saturday afternoon. The win kept Lasell unblemished in GNAC play at 8-0 while improving their overall record to 9-4. Anna Maria slipped to 2-12 on the season and 2-6 in league games.

Casey Sullivan (Waterford, Conn.) finished with five points on four goals and one assist, Andrew Suh (Colchester, Conn.) added two goals and four helpers and Joe Cunning (Newton, Mass.) chipped in a hat-trick for the second time in as many games. Chris Thomas-Ikier (Burlington, Mass.) earned the win, making seven saves in the first half before being replaced by Jorge Salazar (Waltham, Mass.) who stopped five shots in a half of work.  

Lucas Stralka and Rodrigo Henriques nearly orchestrated an upset of the Lasers for Anna Maria as Stralka netted five goals and one assist and Henriques added four goals and two assists to account for all of the AMCats points in the game. Franco Francisco made 16 saves in a losing effort for Anna Maria.

Anna Maria used an 18-6 advantage in the face-off circle as Henriques won 13 of 17 and Jacob Parker won five of seven to stay in the game until the end, while also holding a 31-27 edge in groundballs.

A goal by Suh midway through the first quarter gave Lasell a 1-0 lead and a pair of tallies from Cunning, including one just seconds before the end of the period sent Lasell to the second quarter with a 3-0 lead. Anna Maria struck back with two goals less than a minute apart to cut the Lasell lead to 3-2 with 11 minutes left until the half. Sullivan and Cunning restored the Lasers lead to three at 5-2 with goals just under the seven minute mark but Stralka answered with his second and third of the contest to make it a 5-4 game at intermission.

Stralka netted his fourth of the game just 33 second into the third period, tying the game at 5-5. Three goals by Sullivan and an unassisted tally by Edwin Sheehan (Wakefield, R.I.) sparked a four-goal run that put Lasell in front 9-5 with just over two minutes left in the third quarter. Stralka tallied his fifth of the match on a feed from Henriques to make it a 9-6 game heading into the final 15 minutes of play.

Josh Gallant (Hampstead, N.H.) and Aaron Laporte (Gorham, Maine) each struck for Lasell in the opening three and a half minutes of the final period to put the Lasers on top 11-6 but Anna Maria wouldn't quit. Henriques scored three times over the next nine minutes, with only a Suh goal keeping Anna Maria from cutting into the lead even more before a Chuck Graham (Londonderry, N.H.) goal in the final minute sealed the 13-9 victory for Lasell.

The Lasers will travel to Daniel Webster College on Wednesday April 16^th before closing out their regular season with a home match-up with Emmanuel College that will decide the top-seed in the 2014 GNAC tournament.