NEWTON, Mass. (3/12/16) – The Lasell College men's lacrosse team used a torrid offensive stretch, scoring nine times in the second quarter enroute to a 15-8 victory over visiting UMass-Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon at Grellier Field. The Lasers improved to 2-1 on the season with the win, while the Corsairs slipped to 2-2 overall.
Junior Josh Gallant (Hampstead, N.H.) keyed the Lasell attack with four goals and a pair of assists, sophomore Austin Tomassetti (Elmsford, N.Y.) tallied three goals and one assist, senior Pat Egan (Glen Rock, N.J.) added five points on a goal and four helpers, and classmate Casey Sullivan (Quaker Hill, Conn.) notched two goals and two assists. Junior Anthony Saitta (Derry, N.H.) chipped in a pair of goals, while junior Connor Johnson (Hampstead, N.H.), and freshmen Ryan Madden (Hingham, Mass.) and Michael Susi (Gorham, Maine) all found the back of the net as well. Junior Jorge Salazar (Waltham, Mass.) made 11 saves in the net for Lasell picking up his second win of the season. Johnson and junior Pete Dolan (Pearl River, N.Y.) each collected five ground balls for the Lasers, and freshmen David Sheehan (Tewksbury, Mass.) and senior Joe Bove (Middletown, R.I.) each had a game-high four caused turnovers.
Sophomore DJ Miller (Ashland, Mass.) and senior Joey Bouthillette (Northridge, Mass.) each posted a hat-trick for the Corsairs, with Miller also adding a pair of assists as well. Senior Bo Prozinski (Ashland, Mass.) chipped in a goal and an assist and classmate Steve Merrick (Metheun, Mass.) rounded out the scoring with a goal as well. Junior Patrick Lucas (Brookfield, Mass.) and senior Andrew Johnson (Hopkinton, Mass.) each scooped up a game-high seven groundballs, and juniors Matt LaFond (Bridgewater, Mass.) and Scott Spangenberg (Westfield, Mass.) split the game in goal for UMass-Dartmouth. Spangenberg took the loss, while recording three saves in the first half, and Lafond registered five saves in the final two quarters.
Anthony Saitta opened the scoring for Lasell on a feed from Tomassetti five minutes into the contest, and Egan threaded the needle on a pass to Gallant for a man-up goal 30 seconds later to put Lasell up 2-0 in the early going. UMass-Dartmouth responded five minutes later with a Prozinski goal from DJ Miller, and then the visitors tied the score at 2-2 when Prozinski set up Bouthillette with three minutes left in the period. Egan got his second assist of the day when he found Sullivan with 1:05 left on the clock, giving the Lasers a 3-2 lead after the first quarter.
Lasell scored three times in the first three minutes of the second peiod, behind unassisted tallies from Saitta and Tomassetti followed by Egan's lone goal of the contest to take a 6-2 lead with 12 minutes remaining. The Corsairs' Bouthillette bookended a Tomassetti tally to make it a Lasell 7-4 with seven minutes left until halftime, before Lasell found the back of the net four straight times, pushing their lead to 11-4 and allowing them to take a 12-5 advantage into the intermission.
The two sides traded a pair of goals in the third quarter, and two apiece in the fourth quarter as Lasell held on for the 15-8 victory.
The Corsairs will be off until Wednesday March 23rd when they travel to Roger Williams for a 7:00 p.m. contest, while Lasell will host Husson on Wednesday March 16th at 4:00 p.m. as they wrap up a three game homestand.