Men's LAX Nabs 17-5 Win on Senior Day
NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College men's lacrosse team secured a 17-5 victory over Eastern Nazarene College on Saturday afternoon in a New England Collegiate Conference match-up.
The Mariners never trailed in the contest, scoring the first five goals en route to an 8-3 lead at halftime. Mitchell then outscored ENC 9-2 in the second half to claim its first conference win of the season.
Mitchell honored its seniors prior to the game, but it was a pair of freshmen who led the charge offensively once things got started. Aidan Messuri scored four goals and added an assist while John Porcelli netted a hat trick.
Mitchell's seven seniors all got starting nods, and Ethan LePain led the group with two goals and five assists. James Giovanniello added a pair of scores while Jonathan Urrutia also found the back of the cage. Bradley Sherwood went 16-for-23 at the face-off spot and grabbed a career-high 12 ground balls, and Desmond Knowles caused a game-high four turnovers to go with seven ground balls. Jake Karnes caused three turnovers and scooped up five ground balls while Cristian Medina picked up one ground ball and nearly notched his first career goal.
Jamar Griggs scored four goals to pace the Lions, who dropped to 0-10 (0-2 NECC) on the year. Devano Clarke also scored a goal, and goalie Ryan Almeida made 17 saves against 34 shots.
LePain had a hand in all three of Mitchell's goals in the first quarter. He assisted on the game's first goal by Dominick Reposa just over five minutes in, and he later pocketed both of his goals in a 48-second stretch.
In the second quarter, Reposa and Porcelli scored goals within 37 seconds of one another to extend Mitchell's lead to 5-0. However, a man-up tally by Griggs got ENC on the scoreboard with 8:34 to go in the half, and within the next three minutes he added two more goals to trim the deficit to 6-3.
Goals by Porcelli and Messuri in the final 3:20 of the half gave Mitchell an 8-3 cushion at intermission. Goalie Steven Turchetta made two saves over the first 30 minutes before turning things over to John Grieco for the start of the second half.
Griggs opened the second-half scoring with his fourth marker of the game, but the rest of the period belonged to the Mariners. Porcelli and Messuri tacked on goals before Giovanniello went back-to-back off feeds by Joseph Hayes and LePain. In the final seconds of the quarter, Ian Falconi scored to put Mitchell up 13-4 heading to the fourth.
Messuri added two scores in the final stanza as the Mariners put the game to bed. Grieco made three stops in goal before yielding to Ethan Wheeler for the final 8:46.
Mitchell (3-10 overall, 1-1 NECC) will next host New England College on Wednesday, April 20 at 3:00 p.m.