4th quarter charge leads Bison over Seahawks

DUDLEY, Mass.  – The Salve Regina University men's lacrosse team was outscored 5-1 in the fourth quarter, as Nichols College rallied for an 8-6 victory at Vendetti Field Wednesday evening. Nichols improves to 4-7, while Salve Regina dips to 1-3.

Michael Bane (North Grafton, Mass.) scored his fourth goal of the game, a man-down strike from Brian Girard (Norwood, Mass.), with 2:11 left on the clock to give Nichols the win. The rookie also potted a man-up goal to close the third. Girard finished the night with a goal and two assists. Macaulay Gillis (Northborough, Mass.) added two goals and a helper.

Curtis McKeon (West Haven, Conn.) led Salve Regina with two goals and an assist as the Seahawks spread out their scoring to five players.

The teams traded goals in the first quarter before McKeon won the faceoff to start the second and sped downfield to put Salve Regina ahead, 2-1, within eight seconds of action. Liam Sullivan (Mashpee, Mass.) fed a pass to Girard for Nichols to knot the game headed into halftime.

The Seahawks scored a pair of man-down goals less than 10 seconds apart to start the third quarter, the second coming off another McKeon win at the faceoff dot, where he bolted downfield before he found Chad Hollenshade (Lutherville, Md.) at the netfront for a high-low shot. McKeon, who finished 14-16 in faceoffs, added another goal two minutes later to give Salve Regina a 5-2 lead and a lot of momentum.

Nichols finally took advantage of the man-up unit with 7:54 left in the third when Gillis found Bane after a lengthy cycle, but the Bison missed opportunities to strike on a Seahawks dead ball penalty right after the goal.

Dan Parks (Nesconset, N.Y.) pushed Salve Regina ahead by three in the opening minutes of the fourth, but Nichols had found its stride as Bane kicked off the Bison's five-goal spree with his 22nd of the season with just under 11 minutes to play. Girard hooked up Gillis a minute and a half later before Bane potted back-to-back goals including the game-winner while man-down with 2:11 left.

Salve Regina called a timeout with 10 seconds left, but the Bison defense thwarted the Seahawks' plan and cleared the ball down for Sullivan to ship to Zac Smith (Wilbraham,

Mass.) for the final tally with 0.8 seconds left on the clock.

Salve Regina outshot Nichols, 41-34, but Bison netminder Scott Gray (Annapolis, Md.) made 17 stops to earn the win. Jackson Petri (Wenham, Mass.) took the loss with nine saves in his first career start.

Nichols returns to Commonwealth Coast Conference action on Saturday, April 14, when they travel to Curry College for a 2 p.m. game. Salve Regina hosts Gordon Saturday at 7 p.m.

Release Courtesy of Nichols Sports Information