HIGH POINT, N.C. – The Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team fell to High Point, 9-7, at Vert Stadium on Sunday afternoon. In his collegiate debut, freshman attackman Michael Rastivo led all Hawks in scoring with three goals. With the loss, SJU falls to 0-1 while High Point improves to 1-2.
Trailing 6-3 heading into the second half of play, Saint Joseph's scored the first two goals of the third period to close the deficit to one goal.
Saint Joseph's senior defender Jack Moran kicked off the two-goal spark by gaining possession for the Hawks with one of his two ground balls of the day. After a successful SJU clear, freshman midfielder Kevin Reidinger netted his first collegiate goal at the 12:07 mark.
Under two minutes later, Saint Joseph's junior midfielder Mike Dougherty found senior midfielder Johnny Simanski for SJU's fifth goal of the game to bring the score to 6-5 with 25:17 remaining in regulation.
From there, High Point tacked on two more goals to extend its lead, 8-5, heading into the final period. Saint Joseph's freshman midfielder Mike Lanham won his sixth faceoff of the day and picked up the ground ball to earn possession for the Hawks to start off the fourth period. Dougherty launched a shot that went just wide of the net, but redshirt junior attackman Ryan McGee gained possession and found Rastivo, who registered his second goal of the game to bring SJU to within two, 8-6, with 13:50 left to play.
The Hawks would hold off any additional High Point advances until the final minute of play, when HPU defender Zack Price found the left side of an open SJU net with 35 seconds remaining in regulation.
The Panthers won the next faceoff, but Dougherty caused one of his two turnovers of the day to regain possession for the Hawks. With seven ticks left on the clock, Rastivo netted his third tally to lead all SJU scorers and to bring the Hawks to within two, 9-7, but that score would stand as time expired.
For the game, Rastivo landed all four of his shots on goal, with three of those shots finding the back of the net. The rookie also picked up three ground balls and caused a turnover in his impressive collegiate debut. McGee scored two goals on a game-high seven shots and added an assist while Dougherty assisted on three of SJU's six goals and caused two turnovers. With his three-point effort, Dougherty extends his point-scoring streak to four consecutive games, dating back to April 20 of last season.
Lanham won eight of 12 attempts at the face-off in a phenomenal collegiate debut from the X.
Freshman goalkeeper T.J. Jones got the starting nod between the pipes and made nine saves in a full-game effort in his collegiate debut. Jones also led the squad with four ground balls.
Trailing 19-11 in shots after the first half, Saint Joseph's fired off 15 attempts over the course of the final two periods en route to an even 26-26 shot total with High Point. The game saw 31 turnovers, with 16 belonging to SJU, and saw each squad earn nine of 18 face-offs. The Hawks were nearly perfect in clears, converting 14 of 16 attempts, but converted just 1-for-7 extra man oppportunities. The Panthers owned a 26-20 advantage in ground balls.
Saint Joseph's kicked off the scoring at the 7:04 mark of the first period as Dougherty found McGee for the game's first goal.
High Point would answer in the second period, scoring five unanswered goals over a five-minute span to give the home team a 5-1 advantage with 7:16 remaining in the first half.
Rastivo would net his first collegiate goal at the 4:03 mark to close the Hawks' deficit to three goals, but High Point's Bucky Smith would net his third goal of the game to extend HPU's lead, 6-2.
Playing a man-up as a result of an HPU penalty, Dougherty would find McGee for their second connection of the game as McGee scored his second tally with 2:17 left in the half to close SJU's deficit, 6-3, heading into halftime.
13 new faces saw the field for SJU in Lanham, Rastivo, Reidinger, Jones, attackmen Parker Self and Ray Vandegrift, midfielders Anthony Joaquim, Danny Manning, Marcus Milione, and Evan Wolf and defenders Charles Giunta, Connor Kubikowski, and Shane Taggert. Rastivo, Vandegrift, Jones, and sophomore defenseman John Winchell all made their first collegiate starts for SJU.
The Hawks will open their home schedule this Saturday, February 22 against VMI. Start time at Sweeney Field is scheduled for noon.
