Seahawks fall to Hawks in Quahog Cup

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. – Despite a late fourth quarter surge, the Salve Regina men's lacrosse team ultimately fell to Roger Williams, 13-9, for the Quahog Cup at Gaudet Field. The Seahawks slip to 3-7 on the season and 0-2 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference while the Hawks improve to 5-4 and 3-0 in the conference.

Roger Williams came out strong in the first quarter, taking a 4-0 lead over the first 10 minutes of action off goals from four different Hawks. Sophomore Garrett Ficara (Somers, Conn.) and freshman Caleb Kenney (Portland, Maine) scored back-to-back unassisted goals as the Hawks converted two Seahawk turnovers for goals. Freshman Tim Kelly (Ridgefield, Conn.) picked up the ball after it hit the crossbar and fed it to senior Drew Beck (South Salem, N.Y.) for his first goal of the game and pushed the visitors' lead to 3-0 with 6:03 to play in the first. Roger Williams won the ensuing face off and freshman Will Siefert (Duxbury, Mass.) took a feed from Kelly to give RWU a 4-0 lead.

Junior Curtis McKeon (West Haven, Conn.) broke up the Hawk scoring with his fifth tally of the season with 3:54 left to go. After his initial shot went wide of the net, McKeon go the ball back in front of the net and made a play past a defender to cut the lead to 4-1.

Kenney netted his second goal of the game with 1:17 showing after picking up the ground ball off a Salve Regina turnover. McKeon won the next faceoff to get Salve Regina the offensive possession. Freshman Brian Gioscio (Franklin, Mass.) put up his first goal of the game to pull the Seahawks within in three at 5-2 with 26 ticks left on the clock. Salve Regina won the next faceoff on a violation to give the hosts its final possession of the quarter and freshman James Fee (Massapequa, N.Y.) sent home his eighth goal of the season with less than a second left to get the Seahawks as close as they would come at 5-3.

Roger Williams opened the second quarter just as the Hawks opened the game with three-straight goals to take a 8-3 lead. Junior Todd Carson (Pennington, N.J.) and freshman Nick Gagnon (Milton, Mass.) each scored their first of the game before Seifert added his second as he took advantage of a man-up opportunity for Roger Williams.

Junior Chad Hollenshade (Lutherville, Md.) scored a pair of goals to close out the first half for Salve Regina and pull the Seahawks back to within three goals at 8-5.

With just two seconds left in their man-up opportunity to open the second half, Siefert took a pass from junior John Ricciardi (Duxbury, Mass.) in traffic to give the Hawks a 9-5 advantage with 14:11 to play in the third. With just 4:08 in the third, McKeon tallied his second goal of the game before Carson scored with just a second on the clock to end the third quarter with the lead 10-6 in favor of Roger Williams.

Hollenshade and Kenney traded goals in a span of 16 seconds to start the final quarter. Beck took a pass from Siefert to extend Roger Williams lead to 12-7 with 12:38 to play. Freshman Jake Pantani (Branford, Conn.) scored his 17^th goal of the season with 7:29 to play before senior Taylor Braun (Commack, N.Y.) posted Salve Regina's final goal of the game to cut the Hawks lead to 12-9 with 6:55 to go. Ricciardi scored the final goal of the game, taking advantage of Roger Williams' final man-up chance with 4:07 to go to bring the score to its final at 13-9.

Hollenshade (3g) and McKeon (2g, 1a) each had a multiple point game for Salve Regina while McKeon led all players with 11 ground balls. McKeon became Salve Regina's all-time leader in ground balls last week and not haw 314 so far in his career. Siefert and Kenney each had a hat trick for the Hawks while Riccardi handed out four assists to add to his only goal of the game.

Salve Regina returns to the turf of Saturday, April 6 when the Seahawks travel to take on CCC foe, Endicott. The opening faceoff is set for 3 p.m. while the Hawks are set to host Curry on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.