Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/22/14
From Press Release
Sophomore attackman Pat Swanick (St. Joseph’s Prep) and freshman attackman Michael Rastivo scored four goals apiece to lead the Saint Joseph’s men’s lacrosse team to a 15-6 win over Michigan at Michigan Stadium on Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Hawks extend their win streak to five games and improve to 6-2 overall.
The win also marks the first time in school history that the men’s lacrosse program has won four consecutive road games in the same season.
Trailing 1-0 after Michigan (4-6) scored the first goal of the game at the 9:02 mark of the first period, the Saint Joseph’s offense exploded for a 9-1 run that spanned the next 23:45 to give the Hawks the 9-1 advantage at the 14:11 mark of the third period.
Seven different Hawks scored the first seven goals of the run before Michigan added a tally with 3:29 remaining in the second period to close the home team’s deficit to five goals, 7-2, in favor of the Hawks
Having each scored a goal during SJU’s 9-1 run, Rastivo and Swanick then tallied another goal each as the rookie scored with 1:54 remaining in the second and Swanick scored just 49 seconds out of the halftime break.
Michigan then scored two unanswered goals within six seconds of one another to pull to within five, 9-4, with 8:37 left in the third period.
However, from that point, the Hawks would go on a 6-2 run, sparked by the two-goal efforts of Swanick and Rastivo, to expand their lead to nine, and that score, 15-6, would stand as time expired.
For the game, Saint Joseph’s outshot Michigan 48-32 and turned a 16-5 shot advantage to a six-goal effort in the second period alone. The Hawks also turned the ball over just 12 times compared to Michigan’s 18. Led by Swanick’s five-point effort on four goals and an assist and Rasitvo’s four-goal day, 10 different Hawks tallied at least one point in the victory.
Redshirt junior attackman Ryan McGee scored two goals on a game-high nine shots and added two assists and six ground balls.
Defensively, the Hawks held a 32-28 edge in ground balls; McGee and senior midfielder Will Abbott combined for 12 with six apiece. After going 0-of-4 from the face-off in the first period, SJU went 15-of-20 in the second, third, and fourth periods combined en route to a dominant 15-of-24 showing from the X on the day. Abbott was phenomenal from the face-off as the senior won all of SJU’s 15 possessions on 20 opportunities for a .750 percentage. Sophomore defenseman John Winchell added four ground balls and caused a team-high three turnovers.
In a physical game that saw 16 penalties, both teams went just 1-of-8 in EMOs.
Junior goalkeeper Dustin Keen (Downingtown West) (5-1) made 13 saves in a full-game effort for his fifth consecutive victory of the season.
Michigan’s Ian King led the Wolverines in scoring with two goals.
Saint Joseph’s returns home for its next three games, beginning with Drexel on Tuesday evening. Opening face-off against the Dragons is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Sweeney Field.
GAME NOTES: McGee has now scored at least one goal in all eight of SJU’s games this season and now owns 92 career points on 61 goals and 31 assists to sit just eight points shy of 100 for his career… Junior midfielder Mike Dougherty (Malvern Prep) added a goal for the Hawks to start the second period and has now recorded at least one point in 11 consecutive games dating back to April 20 of last season… The last time the program won five consecutive games in the same season was in 2007… SJU’s 6-2 overall record is the program’s most successful record through eight games since the 2000 team posted a record of 6-2 through its first eight games… The Hawks sport a 5-0 record for games played through March; the last time SJU went 5-0 through the month of March was 14 years ago when the 2000 team won its first six games of the season, all in March, en route to a 6-2 record through eight games played in March… With five wins, the Hawks match their total number of wins from last season with six games remaining in the regular season.
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