PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse squad (7-6, 3-2 NEC) used a 4-0 fourth quarter run to pull away from Wagner (2-11, 0-5 NEC) as the Hawks downed the Seahawks, 14-6, in Northeast Conference action on Saturday afternoon on Sweeney Field in SJU's 2019 regular-season home finale. 

Prior to the start of the game, the Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse program honored senior close defenseman Thomas Tarleton and senior midfielders Zach Hare and Thomas LaRose in a Senior Day ceremony. Moments later, LaRose made his first collegiate start, as a member of the first midfield.

"It's nice to win at home, and it's nice to win at home for our seniors," said head coach Taylor Wray following the NEC victory. "It was a much better, all-around effort than we saw from our team a week ago."

Freshman attackman Ryan Doran led nine Hawks in scoring with a hat trick alongside four ground balls and three caused turnovers while sophomore attackman Shane Fable (2g, 1a), freshman midfielder Cole Peters (2g), and junior long stick midfielder Liam Hare (2g) added multi-goal efforts.

Freshman face-off specialist Zach Cole had another strong game from the X, going 16-for-23 (70 percent) with 11 ground balls while sophomore goalkeeper Mike Adler (7-6, 3-2 NEC) made nine saves in the full 60:00.

"Zach was once again terrific facing off," added Wray. "We put good pressure on them on the ride and did a much better job clearing the ball. Mike was great between the pipes. Our close D in general played very well today. Anytime you win the ground ball battle 36-20, you're probably going to have a positive outcome. Overall, great effort and a great way to respond from a lackluster performance from a week ago."

Also of note on the defensive end, freshman short stick defensive midfielder Andrew Chilson went for three ground balls and four caused turnovers as a critical member of the transition game.

Fable got the Hawks on the scoreboard first (1Q, 14:42) before Wagner scored three straight to take a 3-1 advantage by the 9:15 mark.

However, Saint Joseph's scored six unanswered to span the rest of the first and all of the second to take a 7-3 lead into the halftime break.

Each team put up three goals apiece in the third quarter to send the Hawks into the final 15:00 up by four, 10-6, but L. Hare (4Q, 13:12), sophomore attackman Matt Tufano (4Q, 12:32), and Peters (4Q, 8:49 and 1:03) put the game away for the Crimson and Gray.

Saint Joseph's closes the regular season at Mount St. Mary's next Saturday, April 27. Opening face-off in Emmitsburg, Md. is set for 1:00 p.m.