Lacrosse's Win Streak Comes to an End Against UMass on Saturday

Box Score

Photo Gallery

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Hartford men's lacrosse team put up a good fight on Saturday night, but it was unable to take down the University of Massachusetts as the Minutemen scored a pair of late goals to come out of Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium with a 13-11 triumph. Hartford, which rode a three-game win streak into the evening, dips to 3-4 on the season while UMass improves to 5-4.

UMass senior Kyle Smith's fifth and sixth goals of the evening proved to be the most important ones for the Minutemen, as they broke open a deadlocked ball game and pushed the visiting squad ahead as the final minutes were trickling off the clock.

Nine different players reached the back of the net for the Hawks, led by two goals from both sophomore Kevin O'Shea and senior Rory Nunamacher. Freshman Jack Bobzien tallied five points, a team-high, on one goal and four assists while Frank Piechota had a solid night between the pipes, rejecting 13 shots.

With 5:59 to play in the third, the Hawks trailed by three goals thanks to back-to-back scores from Smith that put the Minutemen up, 11-8. Hartford clawed back, though, scoring three unanswered goals to knot up the game at 11-all heading into the final quarter of play.

Nunamacher started that rally, scoring unassisted with 4:46 left in the third, and O'Shea capped off the spurt, delivering back-to-back goals to bring the game back to even. A sophomore attackman, his first goal of the game came with at the 2:52 mark of the third while his second was delivered with just 10 seconds left in the period as he wheeled around from behind the cage, launched a shot from his knees, and beat Minutemen keeper Zack Oliveri with a low dagger.

The pace of the fourth quarter was uncharacteristic in comparison to the first three quarters which had seen 22 combined goals. Both teams were kept off the scoreboard for more than 11 minutes, until Smith broke the silence with the game-winning tally at the 3:50 mark. He went on to add an insurance tally for the Minutemen with just 75 seconds left in regulation to give his squad the 13-11 advantage heading into the final seconds.

Grant Whiteway added three goals and an assist for UMass while Will Manny scored one and assisted on one other.

UMass drew blood first in the game as Smith got his offense going just 125 seconds out of the opening faceoff. Hartford answered back, however, and pushed ahead, 3-1, using three-straight scores from Austin Gorman, Alex Matarazzo and Rory Nunamacher.

Three more goals would be scored before the end of the period, two by the Minutemen and one by the Hawks as Hartford held on for the lead, 4-3, heading into the second stanza.

Just over one minute in to the second quarter, Tim Engel made it a two-goal spread again for Hartford after delivering his first goal of the season. That 5-3 advantage was short-lived, though, as UMass rattled off two unanswered scores to even up the game at 5-5 with 8:34 left before halftime. The Hawks would grab their final lead of the game 30 seconds later after Bobzien fed Andrew Cacchio on the man-up to make it a 6-5 game.

From there, UMass' offense got hot, igniting for four-straight scores within a six minute stretch to erase its deficit and push ahead by three at 9-6 with 53 seconds to go in the second quarter. Bobzien's lone goal of the contest closed the Hawks' gap to two goals before the break at 9-7, a deficit that would be whittled down to one early in the third thanks to a man-up goal by Brad Hutton.

UMass finished with edges in shots (40-35) and ground balls (35-25) and held the advantage at the faceoff X (16-of-28) paced by Joe Calvello. Junior Tate Klidonas went 5-of-8 inside of the circle for the Hawks, finishing with four ground balls. Hartford was 2-of-4 in man-up chances with Cacchio and Hutton scoring those goals.

The Hawks wrap-up their three-game homestand on Saturday evening when they welcome the UMBC Retrievers into Alumni Stadium for the start of America East Conference play. The two squads will kick of the new season at 2 p.m.

Print Friendly Version