PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. – The No. 11 ranked Pace University men's lacrosse team was defeated by the No. 15 ranked Saint Anselm College in the quarterfinal round of the NE10 Conference Championships, as the Hawks took a 15-12 victory Saturday, April 29.
The Setters (11-4, 7-3 NE10) got out to a fast start, scoring twice in the first 2:41 of the game to take a 2-0 lead. Senior midfielder Anthony Caputo (Westbury, N.Y./W.T Clarke) and grad student attack Jake Veres (Robbinsville, N.J./Robbinsville) got on the board for Pace, but Saint Anselm (9-3, 7-3 NE10) answered with a goal three minutes later to narrow the gap to one. Sophomore attack Daniel Zabbia (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills West), who scored four goals on the day, came back with another one for Pace to put the team ahead 3-1, but the Hawks rallied for two straight goals to tie the game with three minutes left in the opening quarter. The Setters were able to regain their two-goal lead in the final minutes, as grad student attack Ryan Brown (Northport, N.Y./Central Bucks) and junior midfielder Rafael Rodriguez, Jr. (Farmingville, N.Y./Sachem East) scored in a 1:05 span to put Pace ahead 5-3 after one.
Saint Anselm rallied to start the second quarter, scoring four straight goals in the first 5:59 of the second to go ahead 7-5. After Zabbia's second of the day cut it the deficit to one, Jack Andrews, who led Saint Anselm with four goals, put in his second as well just 24 seconds later to make it an 8-6 game. Pace was able to narrow Saint Anselm's lead to one before the half, as Zabbia put in two more. Chase Lilly converted a man-up opportunity for the Hawks, who took a 9-8 lead into halftime.
After the teams traded goals early in the third, the Setters took the lead back with goals from Caputo and senior attack Marcus Ottaviano (Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada/Nichols School) as Pace went ahead 11-10 with 4:21 left in the third. The visitors responded once again, netting two goals in 41 seconds to go up 12-11 heading to the fourth quarter.
The Hawks created some distance early in the fourth, getting two goals from Quinn Gannon and Chris Claflin in the first 1:33 of the final period. Another goal by Andrews with 6:36 left gave the visitors a four-goal lead, and despite Caputo picking up his fourth of the day with just under five minutes remaining, Saint Anselm held off the Setters to take a 15-11 victory and advance to the NE10 Conference Championship semifinal round.
Caputo and Zabbia had four goals apiece for Pace, with Caputo adding a pair of assists while Zabbia had four ground balls. Junior midfielder Maxwell Streety (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) led the Setters with eight ground balls on the day, while grad student goalkeeper Louis Ragusa (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) made 11 saves on the day, setting the program's all-time saves record with his 657th career save in the first quarter.
