April 16, 2011

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team hung tough against Delaware on Saturday afternoon, but the Colonial Athletic Association leaders emerged with a 10-6 win in a rain-soaked contest at Finnesey Field.

Before the game, SJU honored its six graduating seniors ¬- Keith Belson, Scott Cullinan, Pat Harner, Pat Kenville, Shawn Mowry, and Rob Saraceni - for their hard work and dedication to the program over the last four years.

Saint Joseph's (0-10, 0-5 Colonial) drew first blood as Augustus Quinzani scored a minute and 49 seconds into the contest to put the Hawks on top.

Delaware (9-4, 4-0 Colonial) responded with 3:50 to go in the quarter as Sean Finegan scored the first of his two straight goals to knot the score. Finegan tallied again three minutes into the second to give the Blue Hens a 2-1 lead.

Eric Smith pushed the margin to 3-1 with 5:14 remaining in the half, but Quinzani notched his second of the day with 2:43 to go to send the game to the half at 3-2.

SJU came out of the gate firing again with Kyle Williams notching an equalizer just 40 seconds into the second half to tie game at three. Unfortunately for the Crimson and Gray, UD scored the next seven goals to put the game essentially out of reach. Nick Diachenko, Grant Kaleikau and Nick Elsmo all scored over a one-minute, 46-second stretch that swung the momentum of the contest squarely towards Delaware.

The Blue Hens took a 6-3 lead into the fourth and extended it right away as Brenden Gilson tallied a man-up goal with 14:15 to go. Diachenko scored twice more, with a goal from John Mills in between, to give UD a commanding 10-3 lead with 5:44 left in the game.

The Hawks did not pack it in, however, executing their offense well over the final minutes. Johnny Simanski netted an unassisted goal with just over five minutes remaining before Williams and Cullinan closed the scoring with man-up goals over the final three minutes.

Between the pipes, Griffin Ferrigan made 13 saves for Saint Joseph's, while Noah Fossner stopped 11 shots for Delaware.

The Hawks will be back in action on Wednesday night as SJU hosts Penn in its final home game of the season. Face-off is set for 7:00 p.m. on Finnesey Field.