Providence Lacrosse Rebounds Against Wagner

There's no place like home. The Providence College Men's Lacrosse Team proved this trite adage still holds water as it recovered from its second mini-skid of 2008 with a 12-3 win over Wagner College on Wednesday, April 23.

The match was the Friars' first home contest in almost three weeks. After losses to Marist and crosstown rival Brown last week, the team needed a win to stay in second place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and have a shot at the number one seed in the MAAC Tournament scheduled for Friday, May 2, and Sunday, May 4, at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y.

Providence got on the board first in this one, as grad student Mark Dillon scored off a feed from senior Robert Lamontagne just under four minutes into the contest.

The Friars doubled that lead off Lamontagne's second assist on the night, this time to sophomore Colin Tigh with 8:31 on the clock.

Wagner evened things up pretty quickly with two first-quarter goals of its own. After goals from Evan Shull and Brian Poisson, the score was tied 2-2 with 1:51 remaining in the opening period. These two points would be Wagner's only goals until the fourth quarter.

PC grad student Bennett Murphy put his team back on top with seven seconds left to play in the first. Senior Dylan Cox assisted on Murphy's team-leading 19th goal of 2008.

The Friar offense exploded with five goals in the second quarter. Sophomores Garrett Kanter and Jackson Fallon scored within 90 seconds of each other to put PC back on top 4-2. Senior Devin McBride followed up these goals with an unassisted goal of his own at the eight minute mark while junior Bobby Labadini contributed two more goals before the half.

Providence opened the third quarter with an 8-2 lead, which proved to be more than enough insurance. However, the scoring was not over yet. Murphy added his second goal of the night with just over six minutes to play off an assist from fellow grad student Henry Pynchon. The Murphy tally was the only goal scored by either team in the third.

The Friars also tacked on the first three goals of the final quarter. Sophomore Dan Daly netted his first goal of the year less than 90 seconds into the period off a feed from Murphy. This was followed by goals from Lamontagne and Murphy to finish off the Friars' offense explosion.

Wagner got on the board once more with Poisson's second goal with 3:04 left to play.

Junior goalkeeper Robert Bryan made seven saves in 45 minutes before giving way to sophomore Frank Cicero, who made four saves of his own in the fourth quarter. With the win, PC improves to 6-1 in the MAAC and 6-7 overall on the season.

Before their offensive outburst against Wagner, the Friars had to deal with No. 14 Brown on Saturday, April 19. Road-weary Providence fell 11-9 in its second match against a ranked team this season. The Friars had a strong first quarter against the Bears, scoring two goals to Brown's one. Tigh scored the team's first goal with 5:29 left to play off a feed from senior Devin McBride. The Bears evened things up but Bennett Murphy put his team back on top with 10 seconds remaining in the quarter. Lamontagne was credited with the assist.

Murphy helped Providence to double its lead in the second by netting his second goal of the game. The play came at the 4:37 mark and made the score 3-1 for a short time.

Brown scored on a man-up opportunity with just over a minute remaining before halftime. Thomas Muldoon's goal cut the Friar lead back down to one, making the score at halftime 3-2, with PC on top.

The lead changed hands several times in the third as both sides scored multiple goals after the break. The Bears scored two early goals to take their first lead in the match at the 8:12 mark.

Tigh's second and third goals put PC back in the lead. His points-both unassisted-came within 70 seconds of each other at the 7:07 and 5:59 marks. The back to back goals put the Friars back on top, with a score of 5-4.

The advantage only lasted a minute though. Brown tied up the score off an Andrew Feinberg goal at the 4:53 mark.

Grad student Thomas Wenskus put Providence ahead for the third time with his first goal of 2008. The point was unassisted and capped off the scoring for both teams in the third.

PC built its lead to 7-5 off grad student Mark Dillon's goal at 13:39 in the fourth quarter, with the assist given to fellow grad student Henry Pynchon.

The Bears came roaring back with five consecutive goals to take the lead a final time.

By the time Tigh netted his fourth point of the night-his third unassisted-at the 2:55 mark, the Friars had fallen too far behind to make a comeback.

Muldoon's second goal-the last for Brown-made the score 11-8 with only a minute to play. Sophomore Jackson Fallon notched the final goal for Providence with 43 seconds on the clock to cut the deficit to two and the game ended with the score 11-9.

This week the Friars will wrap up the regular season with an 11:00 a.m. match at Canisius on Saturday, April 26.

The team has already clinched a berth in the upcoming MAAC Tournament, but its seed is yet to be determined. A win at Canisius would not only put the Friars in a first-place tie with the Golden Griffens, but it would give them the outright one seed by virtue of the tiebreaker.

Looking further ahead, a win would also put the team in a position to perhaps qualify for a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament should it win the MAAC title. Last year, the Friars drew the lowest seed and lost in the first round to Duke, the eventual runner-up.

But before the team can start thinking about a trip to the NCAAs, it needs to first take care of Canisius first on Saturday. MAAC conference games are usually very close and the Friars cannot afford to slip-up. PC is trying its best to secure the number two seed for the MAAC tournament which would give the Friars and excellent chance at repeating as league champions, which would give them an automatic bid into the 2008 NCAA tournament.