Written by Jonny Stevens
The Albertus Magnus College men's lacrosse team recognized senior day for the lone senior John Monaco (Naugatuck, Conn.). The Falcons lost to Rivier University 12-7 however. The Falcons fall to 3-9 on the season and 2-6 on the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) while the Raiders of Rivier University improve to 8-5 on the season and 5-4 in the conference.
The Falcons jumped ahead with 11:07 left to go in the first quarter after Justin Bennet (Fairfield, Conn.) received a pass from behind the cage by his teammate Greg Buck (Berlin, Conn.). Buck, who is usually on the scoring end of plays recorded three assists on the day.
Rivier quickly responded with a 5-0 scoring run powered by Kyle Graham and Tom Johnson. Graham netted three goals in the stint while Johnson scored two.
With 7:14 left to go in the second quarter, Michael Ciarleglio (West Haven, Conn.) netted his fourth goal of the year off of another pass from Buck. Mike Choiniere (Bethany, Conn.) connected with Buck as well as he scored to bring the game to 5-3 with 3:12 seconds to go in the half.
Rivier ended the half with a 6-3 lead. The Raiders outshot the Falcons 26-18 in the quarter. They also won in groundballs 26-12.
The third quarter scoring started with a Graham goal that was assisted by Johnson. Graham ended the game with a game-high four goals and ended with five points on the day. Teammate Cody Lynch also ended the game with five points as he recorded three assists alongside his two goals.
Albertus showed signs of coming back with 6:04 left in the game as they started to cut down the Raider lead. Buck scored his first goal of the game and his 40th on the season. Just three minutes later, Michael Ciarleglio scored his second goal of the game and fifth of the season. The score was cut to 12-7 with 3:54 left in the game but was too much of a deficit for the Falcons.
Buck led the Falcons in points with a goal and three assists. Choiniere recorded three points with two goals and one assist.
Brandon Scicchitano (Norwalk, Conn.) was great in goal once again as he flew around the cage blocking 12 shots.
A notable mention for the Falcons would be the hustle of freshman defender Tyler Burzenski who threw his body in front of Raider shots on goal, blocking three of them.
Justin Bennet ended the game with a team-high four ground balls and won 10 of 22 faceoffs.
Rivier outshot the Falcons 46-39 for the game and won 45-30 on ground balls.
The Falcons look to take on Johnson & Wales Wednesday night in Rhode Island for one of their final two games on the road.
