SRU extends its winning streak to seven games

Worcester, Mass. – Four different Salve Regina players recorded hat tricks and the visiting Seahawks erupted for eight third quarter goals en route to an 18-12 win over Clark University in non-league men's lacrosse action on Wednesday evening at the Granger Turf Complex. 

The win for the Seahawks pushes their school record start to a perfect 7-0, while the Cougars have now dropped back-to-back games after opening the season with three straight victories. 

Salve Regina's quartet of hat tricks overshadowed an impressive offensive performance by Clark's Nick Johnson (Amherst, Mass.), who scored a career-best five goals and added an assist in the loss. 

After falling behind 2-0 in the first quarter, the Scarlet and White put together back-to-back goals from Keegan Callahan (Tewksbury, Mass.) and Johnson to even the score at the end of the period. 

Ryan Moore (West Hartford, Conn.) added his first of the game in the first three minutes of the second period, giving the Cougars a brief 3-2 edge. 

Salve Regina, however, scored four of the next five goals to take the lead as Eric Backus (Mansfield, Mass.), Sharp Jones (Scituate, Mass.), Nick LoCicero (Lynbrook, N.Y.) and Cam Brazill (Ridgewood, N.J.) all found the back of the net. 

Sandwiched around those four goals were two scores by Johnson, including one with 43 seconds left in the half that made the score, 6-5. 

The Seahawks took the momentum right back when Backus took a feed from Curtis McKeon (West Haven, Conn.) and netted his second of the evening with less than 30 second left to play. 

McKeon then opened up the third period with a goal of his own but Clark answered back with a man-down goal from Alex Turgeon (Holden, Mass.). 

Jones made it 9-6 in favor of the visitors when he connected for a man-up goal and that was followed by David Mavilia (Scituate, Mass.) sneaking one in with a man down score moments later. 

Peter Christiansen (Seattle, Wash.) stopped the Seahawk scoring streak with an unassisted score with 10:38 left in the third but Dan Parks (Nesconset, N.Y.) and Chad Hollenshade (Lutherville, Md.) alternated the next four goals in a three minute span, capped by Hollenshade a man-down tally to give Salve Regina a 14-7 advantage. 

Clark did score three of the final four goals of the period as Johnson and Callahan found the back of the cage with Johnson slipping one past Andrew Watkins (Natick, Mass.) with two second left in the quarter. 

McKeon put the Seahawks ahead, 16-10, less than three minutes into the fourth but Rob Holden (East Longmeadow, Mass.) kept the Cougars close with a man-down marker off of a Zach Duffy (Wakefield, Mass.) feed a little more than a minute later. 

In the end Salve Regina proved to be too much as Jones and Hollenshade banged home goals in the final six minutes to give the Seahawks the win. 

Salve Regina had a slight edge in shots (41-40) and saves (12-11) and was also ahead in groundball picks (52-43). McKeon, meanwhile, controlled the faceoff 'X', winning 24 of 34 and scooped up 24 groundballs to set a new program record in a single game. 

Neither team excelled with the extra attacker as they combined to go 3-for-13 on extra man opportunities but ironically, there were four goals scored when the teams were a man down. 

Hollenshade, Jones, McKeon and Parks all had three goals for the Seahawks, who also got a goal and two assists from LoCicero. Hollenshade added two assists and Backus had a goal and an assist as well. 

In addition to Johnson's five goal outburst for the Cougars, Moore recorded two goals and an assist and Callahan chipped in with two. 

Ryan Marsh (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) led the team with nine groundballs and Duffy finished with an assist, five groundballs and three caused turnovers. 

Both teams are back in action on Saturday with Salve facing Gordon College in a game to be played at Brown University, while Clark travels to Manhattanville.