NEWTON, Mass. (4/10/14) – The Lasell College men's lacrosse team remained undefeated in Great Northeast athletic Conference play with an 11-7 victory over Becker College on Thursday afternoon at Grellier Field. The Lasers improved to 8-4 on the season and are 7-0 in GNAC play while Becker dropped to 10-3 for the year and 6-2 in league contests.
Sophomore Casey Sullivan (Waterford, Conn.) lead the way for Lasell with three goals and two assists and junior Joe Cunning (Newton, Mass.) tallied a hat-trick of his own and added an assist. Freshmen Josh Gallant (Hampstead, N.H.) netted a pair of goals for the Lasers, Andrew Suh (Colchester, Conn.) scored on and tallied two helpers and Mike Bomberg (Merrimack, N.H.) and Dylan Gray (Bayport, N.Y.) each finished with a goal. David Walen (Longmeadow, Mass.) made nine saves in net for Lasell, collecting his eighth win of the season.
Freshmen Daniel Johnson (Plymouth, Mass.) posted a hat-trick for Becker and junior David Deschenes (Gales Ferry, N.H.) scored twice and tacked on an assist as well. Freshmen Myles White (Norwalk, Conn.) and Blake Boutiette (Burrville, R.I.) each added a goal for the Hawks in the contest. Freshmen Jeffrey Candee (Madison, Conn.) stopped nine shots in the cage for Becker, taking his third loss of the year.
The Lasers opened the first half flying, opening the scoring with a Sullivan goal from Suh with just over five minutes gone in the game. Suh scored on feed from Pat Egan (Glen Rock, N.J.) a minute and a half later and Egan set-up Dylan Gray for a goal at the 5:43 mark that made it a 3-0 lead for Lasell. Blake Boutiette knocked home a loose ball in front of the goal to get Becker on the board but Lasell responded when Suh again fed Sullivan to push the lead back to three at 4-1. Daniel Johnson netted an unassisted man-up goal just before the end of the quarter to cut the score to 4-2.
Johnson scored again for Becker, this time on a feed from Deschenes two minutes into the second quarter cutting the Lasers lead to 4-3. Joe Cunning found Sullivan for a Lasers goal with six minutes left in the half then Sullivan fed Mike Bomberg for a transition goal to give Lasell a 6-3 lead. Cunning buried an unassisted goal of his own with just over a minute to play in half for Lasell and Anthony Saitta (Derry, N.H.) found a cutting Gallant on the crease with 30 seconds left before intermission as Lasell stretched their lead to 8-3 at the break.
An unassisted goal by Cunning gave Lasell a 9-3 advantage as the hosts threatened to run away with the game. Becker tightened defensively and Deschenes, the GNAC's leading scorer found some space, scoring with 6:48 in the quarter to trim the lead to 9-4. Daniel Johnson scored his third of the game with 15 seconds left in the third period, keeping Becker within striking distance at 9-5. Cunning opened the fourth period with his third unassisted tally of the game to make it a 10-5 Lasell lead, but Deschenes answered three minutes later to make it a 10-6 score as Becker continued to hang around. Myles White tallied an unassisted goal with 3:16 to play in the fourth that made it a 10-7 game, but Lasell won the ensuing face-off and killed a penalty off then put the game away when Sullivan found Gallant for the final goal of the game producing the 11-7 final.
Lasell held a 16-5 advantage at the face-off spot and a 46-30 edge in groundballs, offsetting their 23 turnovers compared to Becker's 21.
Becker will travel to Emmanuel College on Saturday April 12th for a 3:00 p.m. game against the Saints as they will look to secure a top-four seed in the upcoming GNAC tournament. Lasell has a pair of road games coming up, traveling to Anna Maria on Saturday for an 11:00 a.m. start followed by a 4:00 p.m. face-off against Daniel Webster on Wednesday April 16th before they return home to take on Emmanuel at 12:00 p.m. in their final game of the regular season.