Men's Lacrosse Wraps up Texas Trip with 11-3 Win over Southwestern

GEORGETOWN, Texas (3/17/15) - The Lasell College men's lacrosse team defeated Southwestern University 11-3 in the final game of their spring trip in Texas on Tuesday afternoon. With the win, Lasell improves to 3-2 this year, while Southwestern drops to 4-6.

Lasell was paced by senior Aaron LaPorte (Gorham, Maine) and juniors Andrew Suh (Colchester, Conn.), Casey Sullivan (Quaker Hill, Conn.) and Pat Egan (Glen Rock, N.J.) who all tallied two goals apiece. Seniors Joe Cunning (Newton, Mass.), Dylan Fernandes (Billerica, Mass.) and Robbie Palazzo (Redding, Conn.) also potted solo markers in the winning effort. 

Freshman Jake Ham (Rockwall, Texas) scored two goals to lead Southwestern, while classmate Dakota Butler (Keller, Texas) tallied a single goal in the loss. 

Southwestern began the scoring at the 9:00 mark of the opening quarter as Ham found the back of the cage on a feed from senior midfielder Jackson Timian (Southlake, Texas). The Lasers scored three straight goals to take a 3-1 advantage, which included a short handed unassisted goal from LaPorte with 4:56 to play in the first quarter. 

Lasell opened the second quarter the same way they ended the first, with three straight goals. Sullivan scored 2:14 into the stanza on a pass from Cunning, while Suh found Fernandes 4:13 later on the man-up advantage to extend their lead to 5-1. Egan added a sixth goals for Lasell 25-seconds later to make the score 6-1, but Ham closed the half with an unassisted goal for Southwestern to put the score at 6-2 at the break. 

The Lasers notched two goals in the third quarter, but Butler tallied the Pirates' third goal of the game just 14-seconds into the final stanza. Lasell pulled away with three more goals to hold on to an eventual 11-3 win.

Lasell junior goalkeeper David Walen (Longmeadow, Mass.) evened his record at 2-2 with 12 saves, while in the other crease, junior Charlie Fisher (Memphis, Tenn.) registered 17 saves (4-6) for the Pirates.

Defensively, junior Mike Pino (Tewksbury, Mass.) picked up a career-high six ground balls, while Walen and Sullivan scooped up five and four ground balls, respectively. 

The Lasers went a season-high 20-for-21 (95.2-percent) on clearing attempts. Lasell also held a 43-29 advantage in ground balls and an 11-for-17 margin in face-offs won, which was highlighted by Brendan Dwyer's (Northport, N.Y.) ten wins at the face-off dot. 

Lasell hosts Rivier University on Saturday, March 21 at 2:30 to open Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action, while Southwestern travels to Benedictine (Ill.) on Friday, March 27 at 5:00 p.m.