Box Score BOX SCORE
When and Where: April 3, 2018 – Manchester, N.H. (Penmen Stadium)
Score: Southern New Hampshire University 15, Bentley University 10
Records: SNHU 3-5 (1-4 Northeast-10), Bentley 2-5 (1-4 Northeast-10)
Junior Joseph Mayernik (Pearl River, N.Y.) registered a hat trick and was one of three Penmen to log four points on Tuesday, as the Southern New Hampshire University men's lacrosse team snapped a five-game slide with a 15-10 victory over Bentley University at Penmen Stadium.
Mayernik potted a trio of goals and added an assist in the triumph, while senior Zach Tanner (Woburn, Mass.) and junior Tom Schutz (Trumbull, Conn.) each scored once and handed out three helpers. Senior Corey Cairo (Shoreham, N.Y.) chipped in with two goals and an assist in front of sophomore Jacob Dionne (Windham, Maine), who registered a career-high 16 saves in his first career start.
Southern New Hampshire wasted little time in building its lead and raced out to a four-goal lead within the first 12:06 of the contest. Senior Mark Beirne (Hooksett, N.H.) opened the scoring 4:28 into the opening stanza after he dodged a defender at midfield, darted through the Falcons defense and bounced a shot over the goalkeeper's shoulder for his seventh of the season. Less than three minutes later, Tanner doubled the advantage when he skipped home his 12thof the season and senior Khyan Gaddy (Albany, N.Y.) followed with his third at 8:54 to increase the advantage to 3-0. Freshman Mason Barchard (Chester, N.H.) capped the run with 2:54 remaining when he collected a feed from Tanner just inside the left alley and whipped a shot just under the crossbar to up the lead to four.
After Bentley got on the board with just over two minutes to go in the first, Mayernik opened the second with his fifth of the year and first of the night at 1:17. Back-to-back goals from the Falcons brought them within two at 5-3 with 10:44 remaining in the first half, but it was as close as they would come for the remainder of the evening, as the Penmen rattled off three-straight to build a five-goal lead. Freshman Cole Jacobson (Dartmouth, Mass.) started the spurt by tucking a shot short-side at 5:08 before senior John Miller (Bedford, N.H.) gathered a pass from Schutz on the doorstep and slotted it to the back of the net with 5:19 to go in the half. Tanner keyed the final goal of the run when he forced a Bentley defender to throw a pass from the left alley back to the middle of the field with the Falcons' netminder out of the cage, and Mayernik picked off the errant feed and deposited it into an open net for his second of the quarter.
Bentley opened the scoring in the third to trim its deficit to three at 8-5, but the Penmen again rose to the occasion with four-straight and effectively put the game out of reach early in the fourth. Schutz kick-started the burst with a low-high missile that rippled the mesh before the goalkeeper was able to get his stick up. Senior Devin Calkins (Bow, N.H.) pushed the SNHU advantage to five when he gathered a pass from Cairo and ripped home his seventh of the year late in the third, and Cairo made it a six-goal affair 1:15 into the fourth. Just 11 seconds later, seniorChris West (Albany, N.Y.) tacked on his fifth of the season to make it 12-5.
After a Falcons' goal cut the Penmen lead back to six, Mayernik completed his hat trick on the man advantage at 3:26 before Jacobson added his second of the night. Cairo capped the Southern New Hampshire scoring with 8:01 to play, and Bentley closed the game on a three-goal run to provide the final margin of scoring.
Matt Sanford netted a game-high five goals in the setback for the Falcons, while Matt Brooks added a goal and three assists. Michael Haggan was saddled with the loss despite stopping 14 shots in the first 53:21 of action. Sean Bennet closed out the contest and did not face a shot.
Notes:
- Bentley held a 51-44 advantage in shots, however, the Penmen put 29 of their attempts on frame compared to 26 by the Falcons.
- Tanner has now tallied at least one point in seven of Southern New Hampshire's eight games this season with six of those occurrences resulting in at least three points. He has already set a career-high in goals, assists and points in a season, and is just two points away from doubling his career total this season.
- Junior Andrew Liu (Piedmont, Calif.) finished 16-for-29 at the faceoff X Tuesday, and is now second in the Northeast-10 Conference with 121 faceoff wins. Liu has won 58.3 percent (121-for-206) of his trips to the X this season, which is No. 18 in all of Division II
What's Next:
The Penmen resume their schedule Saturday (April 7) when they host Merrimack College at Penmen Stadium for a 1 o'clock faceoff.
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