UTICA, N.Y . – The SUNYIT Men's Lacrosse Team (0-4, 0-0 NEAC) lost to visiting Mount Saint Vincent College (7-4) on Saturday, 12-5. Despite 16 saves by goalie Andre Shattell (Syracuse, N.Y. / Henninger) the Wildcats were unable to overcome a two-to-one deficit in shots as the Dolphins fired an eye-popping 40 times on SUNYIT.
The Wildcats were competitive early and even looked in command racing, as they did, out to a 3-1 lead on a Jon Eguren (Vittoria, Spain / Cicero-North Syracuse) goal 44 seconds into the second period.
SUNYIT would have little time to celebrate, however, as midfielder Ahmed Ajao fired one past Shattell less than a minute later. It was the first Mount St. Vincent goal in over six minutes of game-time. The Dolphins would not be nearly so patient for their next score, as less than ten seconds later Matt Desimone found the net on a Bruce Pappas assist. Pappas led all scorers with five points on the day (3 G, 2 A).
When the dust settled at half, the Dolphins had rattled off a 6-0 run, taking a 7-3 lead into the locker room.
SUNYIT tried to rally to start the second half on another Eguren goal, but just couldn't seem to get anything going offensively as Mount St. Vincent stretched their lead to eight before a Kevin Gardrvits (Glen Cove, N.Y. / Alfred State) goal near the end of regulation gave the game its final tally of 12-5.
While the Wildcats were crippled by a 20 to 40 disadvantage in shots and a -10 turnover margin (26 to 16), the team showed promise in a few areas. Sophomore Tyler Serva (Chenango Forks, N.Y. / Chenango Forks) won a whopping 15 of his 19 faceoff attempts, and the freshman Shattell continued his strong play in goal with a season-high 16 saves.
The Wildcats will next continue their search for the program's first win on March 28th in an away contest with SUNY Canton. Game time is slated for 6:00 pm.
