After last year’s disappointing 6-7 season, the Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse team started the 2008 season off on the right foot last Saturday with a decisive 14-4 victory over Wagner. It was an especially impressive victory considering that the Bobcats lost 68 percent of their offense from departing players like Mike Stottler and Tucker Prudden.
Quinnipiac came out strong in the first quarter. The Bobcats outshot Wagner 15-0 and came away with three goals. Ted Dimond, Sean Endicott and A.J. Alessi all scored for the Bobcats. Just 35 seconds into the second quarter, Bill Hayes scored for Quinnipiac as they opened up a 4-0 lead before Wagner even had a shot on goal.
While they had a man advantage because of Alex Marotto’s slashing penalty, the Seahawks got on the scoreboard with a goal from Will Macumber. Garret Kerr scored right before the end of the half to give the Bobcats a 5-1 lead going into the half.
Kerr, Alessi and Mike Lamagna added goals late in the third quarter for the Bobcats as they increased their lead to 8-1. But in the fourth quarter, Wagner scored two goals in the opening four minutes to close the gap to 8-3. However, the Bobcats scored six straight goals to make it 14-3 before Wagner added one last goal by Macumber.
Alessi and Kerr both scored in the fourth to end up with hat tricks for each player, and Hayes got his second goal of the game. Gary Messina and Matt Minor also scored for the Bobcats. Messina also had two assists, both in the third quarter. Lamagna had two assists, both in the fourth. Endicott, Marotto and Alex Poerio also had assists in the game. Alessi led all players with 8 shots.
However, the game was far from perfect for the Bobcats. Quinnipiac was whistled for 13 penalties in the game, compared to four for Wagner.
Nonetheless, the Bobcats won 16 of 22 face-offs in the game, and were able to kill seven of 11 man disadvantage attempts. They also kept the majority of play in the Seahawks zone, not allowing Wagner to clear the ball out of their zone.
The Bobcats will return to action when they host St. John’s on Saturday ay 1 p.m.
