Men's Lacrosse Falls to Brown at Home on Wednesday

Box Score

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Hartford men's lacrosse team fell to the visiting Brown Bears, 14-4, on Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium. The Hawks will look to bounce back on Saturday when they head to Loudonville, N.Y. to take on the Siena Saints in a game that is set for a 1:00 p.m. start.

Junior Tate Klidonas scored twice to lead Hartford (0-3) while classmates Alex Matarrazo and Andrew Cacchio added one goal apiece to round out the Hawks' scoring. Rookie Jack Bobzien and sophomore Austin Gorman each finished with two assists.

The Hawks found themselves in a hole early, as Brown (2-1) started the game with four unanswered goals. Four different Bears reached the scoreboard, with Sam Hurster and Brendan Caputo providing the visiting squad with a 2-0 advantage just two and a half minutes out of the opening faceoff. The goal for Hurster proved to be the first of five for the junior, who entered the afternoon as the team's leader in scoring with six points.

The rally continued for Brown, which received two more goals before the 10 minute mark, with Stephen Chmil and Nick Piroli making it a 4-0 ball game.

Before the end of the first quarter, Klidonas scored a much needed goal for the Hawks, connecting on a feed from freshman Gorman from in front of the crease. Gorman found his linemate streaking towards the goal and with the quick release, Klidonas beat Brown keeper Jack Kelly by hitting the upper left part of the net. That cut Hartford's deficit to three at 4-1 with 68 seconds to go in the opening quarter.

Scoring was sparse in the second quarter as Brown outshot Hartford, 12-8, and won all three faceoffs to push its advantage to 6-1 before the halftime break. Bailey Tills opened the period with a marker just 47 seconds in and Henry Blynn provided the Bears with a five-goal advantage at the intermission after scoring with 2:15 remaining.

Brown started things off in the third the same way as it opened up the outing, scoring a flurry of goals to push its lead to nine by the midway point of the period. During that stretch, which featured three unassisted scores, Blynn and Hurster netted their second goal of the game while Alex Jones and Tim Jacob scored for the first time of the afternoon.

Hartford picked up the pace in the closing minutes of the second after Bobzien assisted on back-to-back goals to cut his team's deficit to seven points at 10-3. The rookie, who has a team-best six helpers on the year, first fed Cacchio with a pass across the cage at the 6:19 mark and went on to provide the pass that set up Matarrazo for his first goal of the season less than five minutes later. Matarazzo's score came from 10 yards out, a rifle from straight-on that hit the lower right portion of the goal.

The home team would be unable to trim its deficit anymore, though, as Brown closed out the game by scoring four of the final five goals to push ahead by 10. With 6:38 to go in the fourth, Klidonas closed out the Hawks' scoring, using an assist by rookie Gorman to make it 13-4 before Jacob struck again for the Bears at the 4:17 mark, providing the final score of 14-4. Gorman shot attempt was blocked, but Klidonas was there to track down the loose ball and managed to shovel in his team's fourth goal of the game from just outside of the crease.

In net, redshirt-junior Frank Piechota rejected 11 shots in 55 minutes while Jack Kelly, who saw 47 minutes of action, collected 11 saves while allowing four goals.

Brown held a 37-32 edge in shots and won the ground ball battle, 37-24. The Bears also finished with the advantage at the face-off X (15-of-22). Both teams combined to go 1-of-8 in extra-man opportunities, with Brown converting on 1-of-6 chances.

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