GENEVA, N.Y. – The Hawks scored the first five goals of the game and never looked back as the Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team (6-2, 1-0 NEC) took home a 13-5 victory over Hobart (5-4, 1-1 NEC) in Northeast Conference action at Boswell Field on Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Hawks have won their last three games and have now won 13 consecutive NEC regular-season games since joining the NEC in 2014.
Reigning NEC Offensive Player of the Year Mike Rastivo led all scorers with a game-high three goals to go with two assists. Senior attackman Pat Swanick (2g, 1a), sophomore attackman Chris Blewitt (2g), and redshirt sophomore midfielder Hayes McGinley (2g) added multi-goal efforts for the Crimson and Gray. Nine Hawks tallied at least one point in the victory.
Sophomore attackman Jason Kelly (8:47), Rastivo (8:17), Swanick (4:55), and McGinley (2:08) put together the game's scoring for the first quarter before sophomore attackman Kyle Cain put away his 12th goal of the season at the 7:57 mark of the second to put the Hawks ahead, 5-0.
Hobart scored its only goal of the first three quarters with 45 seconds to play before the halftime break to put the Statesmen on the board, 5-1, at the half.
From there, the Hawks scored seven consecutive goals to extend their lead, 12-1, with 11:00 remaining in regulation. Swanick (13:42), McGinley (10:09), junior midfielder Marcus Milione (9:22), and Rastivo (5:03) scored in the third before senior midfielder Kevin Forster (13:10), Rastivo (12:18) and Blewitt (11:00) put together a trio of goals over the span of just over two minutes to start the fourth quarter.
Hobart put together a run at the end of the game, scoring four of the final five goals, including three in the final 1:14.
For the game, Saint Joseph's held edges in shots (35-34) and ground balls (23-21) and went 21-for-24 in clear attempts, earning 10 more clear opportunities and seven more successful clears than Hobart. The Statesmen won 12 of the game's 21 opportunities from the face-off.
Junior face-off specialist Mike Lanham went 8-of-18 from the X to go with a game-high five ground balls for SJU, while freshman Daniel Lanham went 1-of-3.
Junior goalkeeper T.J. Jones (6-2, 1-0 NEC) made nine saves and allowed just two goals in 54:21. Sophomore Pat Dallon made two saves and allowed three goals in the final 5:39.
Saint Joseph's returns to action at Wagner next Saturday, April 1. Opening face-off in Staten Island, N.Y. is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
