RINDGE, N.H. – The Pace University men's lacrosse team played its final regular season game on the road against Franklin Pierce Saturday afternoon, beating the Ravens, 17-8, to finish the season on a four-game win streak. The win locks up the No. 5 seed in the 2016 Northeast-10 Conference Men's Lacrosse Championships. The Setters improve to 11-5 overall and 7-4 in the NE-10, while Franklin Pierce drops to 5-8 and 4-7 in the conference.
Franklin Pierce scored the first two goals of the game after Bradley Cahpdelaine and Anthony D'Aprile each netted one in the first seven minutes. Junior
Peter Sharp (Airmont, NY/Suffern) drove one in to the back of the net at the 7:38 mark to put the Setters on the board. His goal was followed up by sophomore
Anthony Gadaleta (Kings Park, NY/Kings Park), who tied the game for Pace off an assist from sophomore
Liam Brennan (Huntington Station, NY/Walt Whitman). Brennan then put another point on the board when he scored a goal with 2:27 left in the first quarter to take a 3-2 lead. With just 16 seconds left on the clock, Franklin Pierce's Ben Lassow tied the game at 3-3 with an assist from Sean Delea.
Less than a minute into the second period, Sharp knocked a shot into the back of the net. He also scored the next goal at the 10:35 mark to give Pace a 5-3 advantage. Sophomore
John Oteri (Andover, MA/Andover) and senior
Tyler Meigel (Centereach, NY/Centereach) scored the next two goals for the Setters and drove their lead up to 7-3. Louis Palumbo got the Ravens on the board again with 8:23 left in the half. Lassow then brought Franklin Pierce back within two after scoring a goal assisted by Luke Tracy.
With 6:23 left on the clock, freshman Bradley Peterson drove a shot into the net for Pace to push the lead back to three. Sharp scored his fourth goal of the game a little over three minutes later with an assist from Brennan to improve Pace's lead to 9-5. Delea scored the final goal of the half for the Ravens to make it 9-6 heading into the break.
Pace tallied three of the four goals scored in the third quarter. Sharp opened up the half with his fifth goal of the afternoon after teaming up once again with Brennan. Franklin Pierce's Nick Bradshaw brought the score back within three after he got one past the goalie at the 8:20 mark. Freshman
Kevin Vogelsberg (Wantagh, NY/Holy Trinity Diocesan) and Brennan accounted for the Setters' other two goals in the third, ending the period with a 12-7 edge.
The Setters came out strong in the final frame, scoring five-straight goals against the Ravens. Sophomore
Ryan O'Hagan (Watervliet, NY/Christian Brothers Academy) used a feed from freshman
Vincent Vasheo (Wantagh, NY/Wantagh) to net his first goal of the afternoon. Vogelsberg planted one in for Pace with 09:44 remaining in the game. Almost three minutes later, the Setters extended their lead once more when sophomore
Joshua Kreitler (Shelton, CT/Shelton) received a pass from senior
Matthew Cossidente (Port Jefferson Station, NY/Comsewogue), and scored to improve the advantage to 15-7. After two more goals from the Setters, Franklin Pierce's Casey Burnett scored his first goal of the night with just six seconds left, but it was not enough to catch the Setters.
Sharp led all players with six points on a career-high six goals. Brennan had five points for the Setters behind two goals and three assists. Cossidente contributed three assists for Pace and caused one turnover. Senior
Matt Ruquet (Rocky Point, NY/Rocky Point / Manhattan College) led all players with nine ground balls, and won 17-of-22 face-offs (77.3 percent).
Sophomore goalkeeper
Robert Beshlian (Wantagh, NY/Wantagh) made 14 saves for the Setters in the win, and is now 11-5 on the season. Franklin Pierce's goalkeeper Nick Burgio made six saves, but allowed 17 goals to fall to 0-2.
Ben Lassow scored two goals for the Ravens while Robert Myers led the team with five ground balls.
The Setters outshot their hosts, 48-38, on Saturday. They also won the ground-ball battle, 40-32. Pace won 22-of-28 face-offs in the game.
With the No. 5 seed locked up, the Setters are now set to take on No. 4 Southern New Hampshire University in the first round of the 2016 Northeast-10 Conference Championships. The postseason matchup will take place in Manchester, N.H. on Tuesday, May 3, at 7 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).
