PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. – The Pace University men's lacrosse team faced off with yet another nationally-ranked team on Tuesday, hosting No. 4 Adelphi University at Pace Stadium in Northeast-10 Conference action. The Setters played evenly with the fourth-ranked Panthers up until the final seconds of the game, but national scoring leader Salvatore Tuttle scored the game-winning goal for Adelphi with nine seconds remaining, giving the visitors a 13-12 win. Pace falls to 7-5 overall and 3-4 in NE-10 play, while Adelphi improves to 10-2 and 8-1.
Tuesday's matchup went into the fourth quarter with a 10-10 score. Just 43 seconds into the period, junior
Peter Sharp (Airmont, NY/Suffern) gave the Setters their first lead since the first quarter, netting an unassisted goal to put Pace up, 11-10. Nearly three minutes later, Adelphi's Paul Bentz tied the game off a feed from Anthony Gomes. Gomes hooked up with Bentz again at the 7:26 mark, giving the Panthers a 12-11 advantage. 37 seconds later, graduate
Kevin Cox (Brightwater, NY/Bay Shore / Manhattan College) fired one home from the center of the offensive zone, and hit the back of the net to tie the game at 12-12.
Shortly after Cox tied the game, Adelphi went back on the offensive. Gomes fired a shot wide of the next at 6:01, and then Gordon Purdie Jr. missed wide left just 19 seconds later. Bentz then tried to get the lead back, but he was denied by sophomore goalkeeper
Robert Beshlian (Wantagh, NY/Wantagh). The Setters then cleared the ball down the field, and senior
Matthew Cossidente (Port Jefferson Station, NY/Comsewogue) took a shot at the net, but missed to the right.
With 2:27 to go, Gomes once again tried to score the winner, but could not hit his target. The Setters came down the field with under two minutes to go, but Sharp and senior
Tyler Meigel (Centereach, NY/Centereach) missed back-to-back shots. Adelphi worked its way back to Pace's defensive zone, and called timeout with 54 seconds to play. After struggling to find a lane from behind the net for nearly 40 seconds, Tuttle ran back out in front of the goal and blasted one through traffic and into the net with just nine seconds on the clock to put the Panthers up, 13-12. The Setters were unable to find one more opportunity in the final seconds, narrowly falling to the No. 4-ranked Panthers after a stellar effort.
Goalkeeper Nicholas Badaracco picked up his first win of the year for Adelphi after taking over for starter John McGrath late in the first half. Beshlian falls to 7-5 with the loss, but made 14 stops in the game.
Sophomore
Liam Brennan (Huntington Station, NY/Walt Whitman) tallied a team-high four points on three assists and a goal. Freshman
Bradley Paterson (Caldwell, NJ/Depaul Catholic) scored twice, scooped up two ground balls and caused a pair of turnovers. Sophomore Anthony Galaleta picked up three points on two scores and a helper, and also grabbed three ground balls. Juniors
Brandon Donnellan (Chester, NY/Warwick Valley) and
Jeremy Wiley (Port Jefferson Station, NY/Comsewogue) matched for a team-high four ground balls.
Tuttle led all scorers with four goals and five points on the evening. Gomes dished out three assists and scored once for a four-point game. Cory Stavis and Bentz both scored twice. Face-off specialist John English won 24-of-29 face-offs and picked up 19 ground balls.
The Setters outshot the Panthers, 45-40, but Adelphi held the edge in shots on goal, 27-20. The Setters were successful on 18-of-20 clears, while Adelphi completed 10-of-14.
Pace will look to get back on track when they visit the Golden Knights of the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y. on Saturday, April 16. The game is set to begin at 6 p.m.
For all information regarding Pace University men's lacrosse, log on to
www.PaceUAthletics.com, follow Pace Athletics on Facebook (
T-Bone, Official Mascot of Pace University Athletics), and follow the men's lacrosse team on Twitter (
@PaceLacrosse) and on Instagram (
@PaceUnivLax).
