Men's Lacrosse sees CCC run end with 12-6 loss to Roger Williams in semifinal
Box Score
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BRISTOL, R.I. – For the first time since the 2003 season, the Endicott men's lacrosse team will not be vying for a conference championship as the Gulls saw their CCC Tournament run end with a 12-6 loss to Roger Williams in the semifinals.
Endicott (9-9) will now anticipate entrance into the ECAC Tournament, a playoff bracket the Gulls have played in five times with two championships coming in the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
The Gulls and Hawks exchanged goals in the opening minutes of the first quarter with Roger Williams striking first at 13:19 on an unassisted goal by John Ricciardi (Duxbury, Mass.). Gulls junior Peter Erickson (Yarmouth, Maine) evened the score under four minutes later with his 14th goal of the season.
Roger Williams scored two straight including Jon Nessa's (Concord, Mass.) first of four goals. The Gulls would not score until there were 37 seconds left in the quarter as midfielder Jon Thanas (Cumberland, R.I.) collected a pass from freshman Harrison Cotter (Lordship, Conn.) and beat the goalie to make it 3-2.
Endicott looked to keep it a one-goal game going into the second quarter but Ricciardi scored with just six seconds remaining to give Roger Williams a 4-2 lead at the break.
Nessa started off the second quarter with his second goal but back-to-back goals by Endicott's Jeremy Morgan (Lake Panamoka, N.Y.) and Nick Togneri (Longmeadow, Mass.) kept the Blue and Green within one at 5-4.
Neither team would score until the Hawks attacker Todd Carson (Pennington, N.J.) put the home team ahead by two with 5:32 on the clock in the second quarter. The Hawks would take that lead going into the second half.
Endicott would not score in the third quarter and Roger Williams tallied four goals in the period to take a commanding 9-4 advantage. Drew Beck (Cross River, N.Y.), who assisted on Carson's goal towards the end of the first half, assisted on two more goals in the third quarter.
After Nessa netted his third goal of the game at 13:15 in the fourth quarter, Gulls senior Harry Holden (Duxbury, Mass.) continued his strong playoff run with a goal to make it 10-5. Erickson assisted on the play. Two more goals from the Hawks ensued and one final goal from Thanas with 4:01 remaining in the game capped off the scoring as Roger Williams went on to win 12-6.
The Gulls dominated the faceoff as junior Sam Ozycz (Cheshire, Conn.) won 12-of-19 attempts and Endicott won 13-of-20 overall over the Hawks. Endicott also managed to outshoot Roger Williams 36-29 in the game and scoop six more groundballs. Ozycz finished with 10 of Endicott's 37 groundballs.
The Hawks were effective on the man-advantage, scoring three goals in six opportunities.
Between the pipes, Gulls junior Tom Burke (Sudbury, Mass.) made seven saves but took the loss while his counterpart Luke Aubrey (Norwalk, Conn.) earned the victory after making 11 saves, including five in the first quarter alone.
Defensively, Greg Szkop (New Britain, Conn.), Michael Armstrong (Winchester, Mass.), and Kyle Burke (Haverhill, Mass.) all had two caused turnovers to lead the team. Roger Williams senior Collin Schmitt (Longmeadow, Mass.) led all players with five caused turnovers.