PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse squad defeated Wagner, 14-7, to finish the 2021 Northeast Conference regular season with an undefeated record of 8-0 in league play on Sweeney Field on Friday afternoon. Riding an eight-game winning streak into the postseason, the Hawks stand at 8-3 overall (8-0 NEC) while the Seahawks drop to 1-8 (1-6 NEC).

Junior face-off specialist Zach Cole went 13-for-16 from the X with 12 ground balls, the 12th of which ties him for SJU's program record for career ground balls (296).

Freshman attackman Carter Page was outstanding off the bench, dropping a game-high five points on a game-high four goals and one assist on the afternoon.

"It was an opportunity that I have been looking forward to since stepping on the field with this team this fall," said Page following the game. "It felt great to get in some action and feel out the game before heading into our NEC Championship pursuit. It was a great feeling to have things go my way on the scoresheet and do my part in helping the offensive unit have success, yet the work is long from over for us this season as we look forward to riding our highs into the postseason this coming week."

Senior attackman Matt Tufano added four points (2g, 2a) while junior attackman Ryan Doran (1g, 2a), sophomore attackman Matt Bohmer (1g, 1a), junior midfielder Austin Strazzulla (1g, 1a), graduate student long stick midfielder Liam Hare (1g, 1a), and senior midfielder Teo Domic (2a) added multi-point efforts.

Senior goalkeeper Tucker Almany (8-0, 8-0 NEC) made eight saves vs. four goals allowed in the opening 40:42 before graduate student goalkeeper Jack Zullo made five saves vs. three goals allowed in the final 19:18.

Graduate student close defensemen Tyler Makar and Josh Bosher went for two ground balls and two caused turnovers apiece while Hare, senior long stick midfielder Sean Voelkel, and sophomore close defenseman Alex Keener also registered two caused turnovers apiece.

How It Happened
• Trailing 3-2 early in the second quarter, the Hawks tore off seven consecutive goals to take a 9-3 advantage into the 10:09 mark of the third; Bohmer (Q2, 11:07), senior midfielder Shane Fable (Q2, 10:12), and Doran (Q2, 9:42) opened the run before Page scored his first collegiate goal on a feed from Domic at the 6:32 mark of the second quarter. Junior midfielder Cole Peters then scored a man-down goal on an assist from sophomore close defenseman Patrick Clemens with 3:07 remaining in the second quarter before Tufano found Page with three ticks to go before the halftime break to send SJU into intermission up by five, 8-3.

• Tufano opened the second-half scoring with his 13th goal of the season at the 10:09 mark of the third to close SJU's 7-0 run.

• Wagner tacked on its fourth goal of the game at the 4:18 mark of the third before Page scored (2:34) on a feed from Tufano and then assisted on Hare's second of the year (:37) to put the Hawks up by seven, 11-4, entering the fourth.

• Wagner scored three of the first four goals of the fourth quarter, with Page's fourth of the day sandwiched in between (8:11), to close its deficit to five, 12-7, entering the final 5:49 of regulation.

• Sophomore attackman Ryan Kemp scored his second career goal - and first of the year - on freshman midfielder Wil Vandegrift's first career assist at the 1:21 mark before sophomore long stick midfielder Sal Pascarella took an outlet pass from Zullo the length of the field for his first career goal with 14 seconds left to close the scoring.

Postseason-Bound
The Hawks will be the #1 seed for next week's 2021 Northeast Conference Tournament and will host either LIU or Hobart next Wednesday, May 5 on Sweeney Field. Time is to be announced.