Seahawks soar in Frostbite Classic

NEWTON, Mass. – In the appropriately named inaugural Frostbite Classic between Salve Regina and Mount Ida, the Salve Regina men's lacrosse team exploded for nine goals in the second half to defeat the Mustangs, 11-4, on Wednesday afternoon. 

With the win, the Seahawks kick off the 2014 season 1-0 while the Mustangs start the year 0-1. 

After a tightly played first half, the Seahawks held a slight 2-1 advantage off freshman Eric Backus' (Medfield, Mass.) first collegiate goal off a quick feed from junior Steven Russell (Bayport, N.Y.) in front of the net to even the game at 1-1. After Mount Ida turned the ball over in the middle of the field with just over three minutes to play, sophomore Alex Flynn (Nashua, N.H.) scooped up the ball to give it to sophomore Alex King (Andover, Mass.) who shot the ball past the right shoulder of the Mustang goalie to give SRU a 2-1 lead. 

Each goalie put up a shutout in the second quarter as Salve Regina out-shot the Mustangs 8-7. 

Just over the halfway point of the third quarter, sophomore Mike Markevich (Westminster, Mass.) evened the score after a successful Mustang clear. Salve Regina answered with three-straight goals in a matter of 1:27 to take a 5-2 lead. Freshman Nick LoCicero's (Lynbrook, Mass.) first goal of his career was sandwiched in between a pair of goals from senior Curtis McKeon (West Haven, Conn.), both with an assist from LoCicero. The second of the two LoCicero-to-McKeon connections came shortly into an extra man opportunity for the Seahawks. 

McKeon's second goal of the quarter proved to be the game-winner.

McKeon won the opening faceoff of the fourth quarter and quickly flipped the ball to LoCicero who gave it to sophomore James Fee (Massapequa, N.Y.) for his first goal of the season just eight seconds into the final quarter. 

Sophomore Sharp Jones (Scituate, Mass.) tallied his first of the season with 10:48 to play in the game after beating two Mount Ida defenders in front of the net to give Salve Regina 7-2 lead. MIC answered back as Markevich scored his third of the season to cut the lead to 7-3.

Wasting little time, Jones connected with senior Dan Parks (Nesconset, N.Y.) as the Seahawks were down a man for his second goal of the game directly off McKeon's faceoff win.

10 seconds later, Parks took the ball to the net himself after picking up the ground ball off a save by Mount Ida goalie senior Kyle Cordaro (Upton, Mass.). McKeon completed his first hat trick of the year off a pass from Backus to push the Seahawk lead to 10-3 with just over five minutes to play in the game.

Sophomore Brandon DiGiacomo (Bohemia, N.Y.)  completed the fourth quarter scoring flurry with his first of the year off a pass from junior Jack Murray (Warren, N.J.) with 1:35 to play. After a shot from Mount Ida went wide, Markevich completed his four-goal game with the last tally of the contest with eight seconds to play to bring the score to its final, 11-4 in favor of the Seahawks.

Freshman goalie Andrew Watkins (Natick, Mass.) had a solid first outing in the net for Salve Regina making 10 saves in his first win. Cordaro made 21 saves in the loss for Mount Ida. 

McKeon dominated on faceoffs as he won 13 of 16 and finished the day with 11 groundballs as the Seahawks won the groundball battle, 34-24. LoCicero finished his first collegiate game with four points (1g, 3a) to lead the Seahawks.

Salve Regina returns to action as the Seahawks come home to face Lasell at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Gaudet Field.