Box Score BOX SCORE
When and Where: April 9, 2016 – Pleasantville, N.Y. (Pace Stadium)
Score: Southern New Hampshire University 14, No. 19 Pace University 13
Records: SNHU 5-4 (4-3 Northeast-10), Pace 7-4 (3-3 Northeast-10)
Senior Cameron Joyce (Braintree, Mass.) scored four goals, including the game-winner with 53 seconds remaining in overtime, to lift Southern New Hampshire to a 13-12 win over No. 19 Pace University in Northeast-10 Conference men's lacrosse action at Pace Stadium on Saturday.
Joyce also added two assists to finish with a game-high six points, while junior Cameron McGuire (Melrose, Mass.) and classmate Daniel Trainor (Billerica, Mass.) each registered a hat trick.
The Setters held possession of the ball deep in Penmen territory with just under a minute left in the extra session, and after using a timeout to diagram a play, began to break in on the SNHU cage. Freshman Sal Lo Medico (Harrison, N.Y.), junior Matthew Blaisdell (Tewksbury, Mass.), and senior Adam Tanner (Woburn, Mass.) converged on the Pace attackman and forced a turnover just outside the crease. Blaisdell grabbed the loose ball and sent a breakout pass up the near sideline to junior Will Thompson (Southington, Conn.), who then found sophomore Cam Rewucki (Dover, N.H.) at midfield. Rewucki sprinted down the center of the field before cutting between a pair of Setter defenders to find Joyce on the doorstep, where he rifled home his 31st of the season to provide the Penmen with the victory.
Southern New Hampshire forced overtime after overcoming a two-goal deficit in the final 1:27 of regulation. Pace took a 13-11 lead with 1:50 to play, but junior Keifer Heckman (Peabody, Mass.) trimmed the deficit to one with his second goal of the day at 13:33 and Trainor netted the equalizer with one minute remaining. Junior Tyler Walsh (Northampton, Mass.) kept the stalemate intact in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter, as he made a crucial save with 28 seconds left and another as the horn sounded to send the teams to an additional four-minute period.
Pace tallied the game's first score just under two minutes in when Anthony Gadaleta found the back of the net with help from Bradley Paterson. Heckman knotted things up at one apiece at 4:44 before Liam Brennan regained the lead for the hosts with 6:52 left in the first. Senior Eric Johnson (West Suffield, Conn.) set up sophomore Dan Malave (Wading River, N.Y.) on the man advantage to bring the Penmen even at 11:15, but Peter Sharp tucked home his 12th of the year with 32 seconds left before intermission to make it 3-2 through one.
Trainor's second of the afternoon was sandwiched between a pair of Setters' goals to start the second quarter, and Pace held a 5-3 edge midway through the frame. Back-to-back strikes from McGuire and Joyce leveled the playing field at 11:32 before Matthew Cossidente tallied two straight to re-establish the two-goal cushion. Southern New Hampshire responded with two markers of its own, again off the sticks of McGuire and Joyce, in the final 36 seconds of the half to send the teams to the locker room with the score at 7-7.
After the Setters outscored the Penmen, 3-1, in the third, SNHU overcame a 10-8 disadvantage to start the fourth to force overtime. Malave potted his second of the day 1:14 into the period, but another two-goal spurt by Pace made it 12-9 at the midway point of the stanza. Trainor converted on the man-up with 5:31 left before Joyce completed his hat trick at 11:24. Tyler Meigel's seventh of 2016 made it 13-11 with 1:50 to go, and the rest of the scoring belonged to the visitors.
Walsh improved to 4-0 on the season after turning aside 11 shots in the contest. Six of Walsh's 11 saves came during the fourth quarter and overtime, while his counterpart Robert Beshlian, made 15 stops and just one over the final two periods of play.
Notes:
- Saturday's win marked the first time the Southern New Hampshire men's lacrosse team beat a nationally-ranked opponent since the 2012 season. The Penmen defeated then No. 3 Merrimack College on April 10 by a score of 7-6.
- Lo Medico and Thompson led the Southern New Hampshire defensive effort with three caused turnovers apiece, and Blaisdell added two in triumph. The Penmen combined to force 14 turnovers in the contest.
- Heckman and Rewucki each raked in a team-high five groundballs, while Blaisdell and Thompson both scooped up four.
What's Next:
Southern New Hampshire returns to Larkin Field on Tuesday (April 12) when it welcomes American International College (0-12, 0-5 NE-10) to Manchester for a 7 p.m. faceoff.
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