ENC Holds off MLAX in Conference Tilt
NORTH QUINCY, Mass. – The Mitchell College men's lacrosse team dropped a New England Collegiate Conference match on Wednesday night, falling 14-8 to Eastern Nazarene College at Creedon Field.
Freshman Xavier Haney (Montville, Conn.) and junior Weston Schumacher (Sherborn, Mass.) each registered hat tricks for the Mariners, who fell behind early and were unable to recover despite a strong fourth quarter. Schumacher also handed out three assists, while Jon Parra-Tobey (New London, Conn.) added a goal and Keeano Gonzalez (New London, Conn.) scored for the first time this season. Parra-Tobey and Gonzalez tallied one assist each, as the eight goals scored were the second most by Mitchell on the season.
Devano Clarke scored six goals and tallied three assists, while Matt Cawthorne potted five goals and dished out five assists for the Lions, who jumped out to an early lead by scoring five times in the opening quarter. ENC proceeded to open up the second frame with five more unanswered goals before Schumacher put the Mariners on the board with 23 seconds remaining until halftime.
Xavier Haney made it a 10-2 game just under eight minutes into the third quarter, scoring on an assist by Schumacher at the 7:18 mark. Unfortunately for the visiting team, the Lions fired back with three goals to close out the stanza, pushing their advantage to 13-2.
The Mariners posted their best offense quarter of the season in fourth, outscoring ENC 6-1. Xavier Haney scored off a Schumacher assist with 9:04 left, and Parra-Tobey notched his fifth goal of the season five minutes later on a feed by Gonzalez. Haney then scored again with 4:15 on the clock, and Schumacher then posted two goals in the final two minutes, with Gonzalez sandwiching one in-between.
The Lions outshot the Mariners 60-35 and won the ground ball battle 53-33. The two teams were even at midfield, each going 12-24 in face offs. Gonzalez was 11-19 at the face off position for Mitchell and scooped up a team-high seven ground balls. Turnovers were once again an issue for the Mariners, as they turned the ball over 37 times to just 18 for the home team.
Senior Ethan Wheeler (Annapolis, M.D.) logged all 60 minutes in the cage for Mitchell and made a season-best 21 saves. Walter Stockwell also played the entire game in goal for ENC, finishing with 10 saves.
The Mariners (0-13 overall, 0-3 NECC) will close out their season at home on Saturday, April 22, with a conference battle against New England College. This will also serve as Senior Day for Mitchell.