Men's Lacrosse Falls on the Road at JWU, 7-3, Wednesday Night

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The University of Saint Joseph (USJ) men's lacrosse team suffered a setback on the road at Johnson & Wales University (JWU), falling to the Wildcats 7-3 during a rain-soaked Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) South Division contest Wednesday night on the Scotts Miracle-Gro Athletic Complex in Providence, R.I. With the result the Blue Jays drop to 8-3 overall on the year, 4-1 in GNAC play and 1-1 in the GNAC South Division, while the Wildcats move to 6-3 on the year, 4-0 in GNAC play and 2-0 in the GNAC South Division.

KEY MOMENTS 

• The Wildcats quickly established a lead, scoring nine seconds into the contest to hold a 1-0 edge.
• JWU continued to pile on the pressure, finding the back of the net again at the 12:29 mark, increasing the gap to 2-0.
• The Wildcats scored two more goals in the first quarter, taking a 4-0 advantage into the second.
• The hosts continued to blank the Blue Jays in the second quarter, scoring two unanswered goals to hold a 6-0 lead at the halftime break.
• The third quarter was a defensive battle until freshman attack Matthew Wurszt (Wilbraham, Mass.) found senior attack Evan Baden (Burlington, Conn.), who fired his shot into the goal, closing the gap to 6-1 at the 2:30 mark. The score would hold heading into the fourth quarter.
• USJ continued to fight back to open the fourth, taking advantage of a man-up opportunity by pressuring the JWU defense, forcing an errant pass that was picked off by senior attack Ryan Paltauf (Southbury, Conn.) before he fired a shot into the goal, closing the score 6-2, at the 13:28 mark.
• JWU put a stop to the Blue Jays momentum, scoring with 7:43 on the clock to extend the lead to 7-2.
• Wurszt was able to pull one back for the Blue Jays at the 4:13 mark, receiving a pass from Paltauf before firing a shot into the goal, closing the score to 7-3.
• The goal would be too little too late, a JWU secured a 7-3 victory.

NOTES 

• Baden and Wurszt paced the team with two points each.
• Freshman midfielder Brendan Tedeschi (Orange, Vt.) corralled a team-high five ground balls.
• Freshman defender Vinny Pusateri (Fitchburg, Mass.) caused a team-high four turnovers.
• JWU won the battle at the faceoff "X", going 10-of-12.
• Senior Trey McCann (Simsbury, Conn.) got the start in the cage, picking up the loss (7-3) after tallying 10 saves.

UP NEXT

The Blue Jays continue a three-game road trip, heading to Anna Maria College for a GNAC cross-divisional matchup on Saturday, April 6. Opening faceoff against the AMCATS on Caparso Field in Paxton, Mass., is set for noon.

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