BRISTOL, R.I. – The Lasell College men's lacrosse team dropped their first contest of the season, falling at Roger Williams University, 7-5. The Hawks held off a late push by Lasell for their first win of the season. Lasell dropped to 1-1.
Jon Nessa (Concord, MA) notched the first goal of the contest, maneuvering his way through the Laser defense and scoring at the 12:58 mark of the first half to put RWU on top 1-0. Both teams would trade goals over the rest of the period, with Billy Wood (Brewster, NY) getting a man-up goal for Lasell followed by a man-up goal by Drew Beck (South Salem, NY) for the Hawks.
Dan Clark (Scarborough, ME) scored for Lasell with 2:29 left in the quarter before Todd Carson (Pennington, NJ) regained the lead for the Hawks, giving RWU a 3-2 lead going into the second quarter.
The second quarter saw very little scoring, as Beck notched the only goal of the period to build on the Hawk lead. The Hawks went into halftime leading by two, but suffered a pair of penalties in the final ten seconds of play to go into the third quarter down two players.
Though the Hawks were able to kill the penalty, Lasell would ultimately score two minutes into the period on a shot by Dylan Gray (Bayport, NY) to pull the Lasers within one. At the 10-minute mark, the Hawks would grab two quick goals in less than 20 seconds by Nessa and Ian Powers to go up by three. Matt Catalano (Syracuse, NY) helped the Laser cause with a man-up goal in the final minute of the quarter to bring Lasell within one.
Gray came through with another score at the 9:09 mark in the fourth quarter to pull Lasell within one. The Lasers looked poised to complete the comeback, getting four shots up after that score and a two-minute man-up opportunity. Yet the Hawks kept Lasell off the board and added an insurance goal by Nessa with 3:22 to play for the win.
Luke Aubrey (Norwalk, CT) made 13 saves in the win for the Hawks, including four in the fourth quarter. Nessa finished with three goals on the day, while Beck scored twice. Alan Williams (Bristol, RI) added five ground balls and eight faceoffs won. Mitri Najjar (Ridgefield, CT) finished the day with four ground balls and four caused turnovers.
Don Berube (Tewksbury, MA) stopped 14 shots in the game in the loss. Gray finished with two goals, with Wood adding a goal and an assist. Adam Foss had six ground balls, while Atticus Robert had three caused turnovers.
Roger Williams hosts Wheaton College on Saturday March 10th, while Lasell travels to Goucher on Sunday March 11th for a 1pm contest.