J'ville Ends Home Slate in Style, Drubs Rutgers
from press release
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The JU men’s
lacrosse team sent seniors Brad Hester and Joe Ciccirelli out in
style in their final home game of the season with a dominant
performance over Rutgers, 17-10.
The Dolphins (5-6) battled with the Scarlet Knights (6-4)
throughout the first half but a five-goal run from JU in the third
and fourth quarter sealed the deal in front of 849 fans at the
Ashley Sports Complex.
Hester didn’t disappoint in his final home start between the
pipes, making 13 saves while allowing just nine goals. Freshman
attackman TJ Kenary did all of his damage in the first half,
scoring five goals and assisting two while freshman Ryan Serville
(3,1) and Cameron Mann (2,2) also turned in strong performances.
The Dolphins also found production from their bench as freshmen
Owen Green and Dan McNulty each scored twice with Green adding an
assist.
The Knights were led with a hat trick from Justin Pennington and
goalie Billy Olin picked up the loss with 30 minutes of play,
giving up eight goals.
“Every game we come out and we want to improve from the last
week and we definitely did that today,” said JU head coach
Matt Kerwick. “This was our best team effort to date and
I’m really proud of our guys.”
The Dolphins jumped on the board early on an unassisted goal from
Serville as JU traded goals with Rutgers in the first quarter. A
goal from freshman Nick Scalzo would start a 4-1 run midway through
the first quarter before the Scarlet Knights scored with just ten
second remaining, narrowing the score to 5-3.
The second quarter was split by the two sides, 3-3, as all of the
Dolphins’ scoring came from Kenary with assists going to Mann
and sophomore Jeremy Tissenbaum (0,2). For the second quarter in a
row, Rutgers scored with 10 seconds or less to close out half.
The third quarter saw the Dolphins pull away as the green and gold
opened the second half with two unassisted goals in the first two
minutes from freshman Donovan Lange (1,0) and Serville. JU would go
on to score two more in the half on scores from freshman Nick
Scalzo (2,0) and Mann.
Mann’s goal towards the end of the third quarter started a
five-goal run for the Dolphins as the lead stretched to 16-8. The
run was carried out with two goals from both Mann and McNulty and
closed out by Serville. Green added one more goal in the final
frame to send JU’s seniors off with a win.
For just the second time this season, the Dolphins committed more
penalties than their opponents (4-2). JU did take advantage of the
man-up situations, however, scoring on the first chance of the
game.
The Dolphins forced 19 Rutgers turnovers, seven from rides, as
each team took 34 shots in the contest.
A neutral-site game awaits the Dolphins next Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
against Presbyterian in Atlanta as the Dolphins still search for
their first road win.
