Freshman Andrew Watkins made 16 saves in his sixth win in net for the Seahawks.
Freshman Andrew Watkins made 16 saves in his sixth win in net for the Seahawks.

Seahawks hand Wesley its first loss

DOVER, Del. - The Salve Regina men's lacrosse team outscored Wesley 6-0 in the third quarter as the Seahawks remain undefeated on the season with a 12-10 win over the Wolverines, Saturday afternoon.

The win improves the Seahawks to a perfect 6-0 on the year while the Wolverines suffer their first loss and drop to 4-1 on the season.

Freshamn Nick LoCicero (Lynbrook, N.Y.) dished out three assists to open the third quarter, one to seniors Curtis McKeon (West Haven, Conn.) and Chad Hollenshade (Lutherville, Md.) and sophomore Sharp Jones (Scituate, Mass.) to cut the Wesley lead to 8-7 quickly after half time. With 5:15 showing in the quarter, McKeon scored his third of the game to tie it before Hollenshade and senior Dan Parks (Nesconset, N.Y.) went back-to-back to give SRU its first lead of the game at 10-8. 

Wesley trimmed the lead to 10-9 as James Moss went to the net unassisted just 35 seconds into the fourth quarter but LoCicero answered with his only goal of the game to give the Seahawks a two-goal cushion at 11-9. 

Once again Moss cut the lead back down to one and once again the Seahawks responded, this time Hollenshade put the ball in the back of the net without help to increase the lead to 12-10. With 1:02 to play, Mike Rakos scored for the Wolverines to get the hosts within one but timely defense by the Seahawks kept Wesley off the board in the final minute of action to preserve the win. 

The Wolverines jumped out to an early 4-0 lead as four different players scored in the first nine minutes of action for Wesley but Jones and Parks sandwiched a pair of goals around Wesley's final goal of the quarter as the Seahawks trailed 5-2 after the first 15 minutes. 

Jones and McKeon went back-to-back with a pair of goals to open the second quarter to pull within one goal, 5-4,  but Wesley outscored the Seahawks 3-0 in the final nine minutes of the second to carry an 8-4 lead into half time. 

Head coach Patrick Cooney's half time speach must have sparked the Seahawk offense as SRU outscored Wesley 8-3 in the second half to preserve the perfect season so far. 

Hollenshade led the Seahawks with five points (3g, 2a) while McKeon (3g) and Jones (3g) each netted a hat trick for Salve Regina. LoCicerco added four points for the Seahawks with one goal and three more assists on the season. The freshman is now just three assists away from the Seahawks single-season assist record of 25.

Rakos led all players with six points on the day with four goals and two assists for Wesley. 

Freshman goalie Andrew Watkins (Natick, Mass.) made 16 saves in the net for Salve Regina. Defensively the Seahawks were led by junior Alex Hennessy (West Babylon, N.Y.) who caused five turnovers and picked up four ground balls. McKeon won 14 of his 25 face offs and scooped up eight ground balls on the day.

The Seahawks return to action when they travel to Clark (Mass.) on Wednesday, March 19. The opening face off is set for 7 p.m.