Rookies Lead St. John's Past Holy Cross
from press release
WORCESTER, Mass. – Six unanswered
goals in the third period gave the St. John’s men’s
lacrosse team the momentum it needed as the Red Storm defeated the
Holy Cross Crusaders 10-5 on Saturday for a season-opening victory.
Rookie Carl Iacona tallied his first career-hat trick in the
five-goal win, as fellow freshmen Harry Kutner and Matt Hurst
collectively racked up five points of their own on three goals and
two assists.
The 10 goals were the highest St. John’s has scored in a
season-opener in the Jason Miller Era and the first road victory
for the third-year head coach. Nine Red Storm players earned a
point in the contest. Senior captain Dom DeNapoli had a career day
at the face-off X, winning 15-of-17 draws and shutting down six
different Holy Cross competitors.
With the win, St. John’s starts the 2009 season 1-0, as the
Crusaders post a 0-1 overall record.
In the first period, the Red Storm rallied back from a two-goal
deficit as Holy Cross took an early 2-0 lead. Led by Kutner and
Iacona, St. John’s tied the game to enter the second period
with an even score. Kutner put the Red Storm on the board at 8:57,
dodging through the cluster of Crusader defense and middies. Iacona
tied up the score at 2:06, scoring unassisted past Crusader senior
captain Jimmy Harrison.
Kutner scored again 30 seconds into Crusader Tim Barrar’s
slashing penalty to take the one-goal lead two minutes into the new
period. Sophomore Joe Bagnasco dished out the assist to Kutner, who
once again scored over traffic.
St. John’s took a two goal lead at 6:32 as Iacona scored his
second unassisted goal of the contest. With a minute and a half
left in the second, Holy Cross sophomore Matt Moran scored to bring
the score within one. St. John’s went into the halftime break
up 4-3.
The Red Storm opened the second half with three quick goals in two
minutes. Iacona tallied his third of the day, again unassisted at
12:37. Senior Dom DeNapoli posted his fourth-career goal, scoring
with the long pole from a pass by Hurst 10 seconds later. DeNapoli
won his eleventh straight face-off prior to the goal, passing off
to Hurst, who returned the ball right back to DeNapoli for a speedy
goal. Hurst added his second point of the contest at 10:40 when he
and senior Malcolm Miles connected to put St. John’s up
7-3.
St. John’s scoring run continued well into the third period
as senior Trevor Michaelsen capitalized on another Crusader
slashing penalty. Michaelsen’s goal was assisted by fellow
senior Tom Manes. With the momentum building in the Red
Storm’s favor, senior Drew Schanen scored 10 seconds after
Michaelsen off a pass from Hurst, to increase St. John’s lead
to six. Rookie attackman Terence Leach added a goal to the score at
3:35 to put the Red Storm up 10-3 going into the final stanza.
In the fourth period, Holy Cross netted two, but the Red
Storm’s 6-0 run in the third period was too much for the
Crusaders to overcome.
Crusader goalie, Harrison blanked 20 of St. John’s 30 shots
on goal. Red Storm junior goaltender Gavin Buckley stopped 10 of
the Crusaders’ 15 shots on the net.
St. John’s scored twice out of three man-up opportunities
and cleared the ball 22 times on 22 attempts for a perfect
percentage.
Up next, St. John’s will host the Quinnipiac Bobcats on its
home turf on Saturday, Feb. 21. Face-off is slated for 1 p.m. on
DaSilva Memorial Field. The game will be broadcast live via
StormTracker All-Access for a fee. Free live in game stats will
also be available via GameTracker on RedStormSports.com.
