PHILADELPHIA – The Hawks and Dragons battled through 60 minutes of a blustery snow storm on Tuesday evening in a cross-city men's lacrosse rivalry game between Saint Joseph's and Drexel. The Dragons took a 9-1 run into the third period and although the Hawks would chip away, the Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team (6-3) would eventually fall, 14-10, to Drexel on Sweeney Field.
"I thought our guys showed tremendous resilience battling back," said head coach Taylor Wray following Tuesday's game. "There was a lot of adversity this game with the weather and going down seven goals early. So to come back from 11-4 to take it 12-10, I just thought the guys really battled back. They showed great resiliency. Disappointed to lose but excited about some of the things our guys showed out there."
Trailing 2-0 early in the first, Saint Joseph's went on a 3-0 run that spanned just under five minutes to put the Hawks ahead, 3-2, with 4:35 remaining in the first period. Freshman attackman Michael Rastivo was involved in the first two scoring plays, the first of which came as a result of an EMO after a Drexel penalty. Just 12 seconds into the EMO, sophomore attackman Matt Blasco found Rastivo as the rookie locked away his 11th goal of the season to get the Hawks on the scoreboard.
Rastivo then assisted on sophomore midfielder Richard Gabelman's second goal of the year before freshman attackman Ray Vandegrift put one away at the 4:35 mark.
Drexel (5-4) would respond with a pair of goals to close out the first period and another tally just 32 seconds into the second to jump back up two goals, 5-3.
Saint Joseph's freshman face-off specialist Mike Lanham would highly influence the following play as he won possession from the X and raced down into the Dragons' defensive end of the field. Lanham dished a pass to redshirt junior attackman Ryan McGee and McGee found the back of the net for his 20th goal of the season to pull the Hawks to within one, 5-4, with 14:09 remaining in the second period.
From there, Drexel would score six unaswered goals that spanned the remainder of the first half to own an 11-4 lead heading into halftime.
The Hawks demonstrated outstanding resilience as they chipped away in the final two periods, including a dominant 4-1 third period. After Rastivo tallied his second goal of the game, the Hawks were faced with a man-down situation after a pair of 30-second penalties on the Crimson and Gray. However, just three seconds into that man-down situation, senior midfielder Johnny Simanski fired off his seventh goal of the season to pull the Hawks to within five, 11-6, at the 12:47 mark of the third.
Drexel's Nick Trizano registered his third tally of the game with 23:48 remaining in regulation, but Saint Joseph's strung together four consecutive goals to pull to within two goals, its smallest deficit since early in the second period, at 12-10. SJU's leader in goals and assists, McGee netted the first goal of the run and then added assists on both Blasco's goal during a man-up situation with just two seconds remaining in the third and on sophomore attackman Pat Swanick's sixth goal of the season to start the final period.
Simanski's second goal of the game with just over four minutes remaining in regulation brought the Hawks to within two, but Drexel would add two more, including Trizano's fourth goal of the game to close the scoring, 14-10.
For the game, Drexel owned a 44-24 advantage in shots and outshot the Hawks 18-5 in the second period en route to outscoring SJU 7-1 in the second 15-minute frame. Drexel owned 22 of 27 total face-off possessions; Nick Saputo won all 22 attempts for the Dragons and recorded 12 ground balls as the Dragons recorded 41 of the game's 62 ground balls.
"They have a tremendous face-off guy and I thought that that really was a huge factor in the game," said Wray of Saputo. "They're guy did a great job and credit goes to them. They played very well."
The Hawks continued to demonstrate why they lead the nation in man-down defense as they held Drexel to just 1-of-6 successful EMOs.
McGee scored two goals on three total shots, added two assists, and recorded three ground balls for the Crimson and Gray while Rastivo (2G, 1A) and Simanski (2G) also registered multi-goal performances.
Junior goalkeeper Dustin Keen (6-3) made a career-high 16 saves in net in a full-game effort.
Saint Joseph's returns to action next Tueday, April 1 when the Hawks host Northeast Conference opponent Mount St. Mary's at 7:00 p.m. on Sweeney Field. The meeting will stand as SJU's first NEC home game of the season; the Hawks are currently 2-0 in the league, winning road games over Wagner and Robert Morris.
