Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/4/15
From Press Release
The Hawks scored six of the game’s final eight goals to secure their second consecutive Northeast Conference win as the Saint Joseph’s men’s lacrosse team downed Robert Morris, 18-11, on Saturday afternoon on Sweeney Field. With the win, the Hawks have now won three straight to stand at 6-5 overall and 2-0 in the NEC while Robert Morris falls to 1-9 overall and 0-3 in conference action.
Sophomore attack Mike Rastivo (South Setauket, N.Y./Choate Rosemary Hall/Ward Melville) tallied a career-high nine points on a career-high six goals and three assists while redshirt junior midfielder Kevin Forster (La Salle College High) added two goals and a career-high six assists and graduate student attack Ryan McGee (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) registered three goals and three assists. Sophomore goalkeeper T.J. Jones (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) a career-high 17 saves in the victory.
In a game that saw 13 penalties, 27 percent (5-of-18) of SJU’s goals were man-up while the Hawks kept the Colonials to just 2-of-7 EMO shooting on the day. 16 of SJU’s 18 goals were assisted and 10 Hawks registered at least one point.
The Hawks used an early 2-0 run to jump out to a 4-3 lead at the end of the first period. McGee (13:06) and Rastivo (12:26) netted their first goals of the day, both on assists from Forster, to give SJU the early 2-0 lead. Robert Morris responded with a pair of goals (11:34, 6:58) to tie the score with just under seven minutes to play in the first period, but McGee scored his second of the day on a feed from Rastivo to give the Hawks a 3-2 lead heading into the final 5:00. After a Colonial goal at the 3:34 mark tied it up again, junior attack Pat Swanick (Haverford, Pa./St. Joseph’s Prep) scored just 24 seconds later to give the Crimson and Gray the 4-3 lead to close out the first period; from the point of Swanick’s goal, the Hawks would never trail or tie with the Colonials for the remainder of the game.
Rastivo kicked off the second period by factoring into SJU’s next three scoring plays as the sophomore netted his second goal of the day on a pass from Forster at the 10:57 mark, assisted on sophomore midfielder Kevin Reidinger’s (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central) score at 9:38, and again scored on a Forster feed with 8:20 to play as the Hawks jumped out to a 7-3 lead with just over eight minutes before the halftime break.
Robert Morris strung together a trio of consecutive goals, sparked by Adiran Torok-Orban’s two-goal effort and James Rahe’s two-assist effort, to pull to within one, 7-6, with 3:23 remaining.
Of the game’s 13 penalties, the most significant was called with exactly 2:00 to play in the second period as Robert Morris was hit with a 3:00 unreleasable penalty for illegal equipment. The Hawks took complete advantage of the unreleasable EMO, and McGee factored into all three of SJU’s EMO scores as he dished feeds to Rastivo (:35) to end the first half and to sophomore attack Robert Raucci (Garnet Valley, Pa./Garnet Valley) (14:40) to start the third period. McGee then fired off his 99th career goal to extend SJU’s lead, 10-6, at the 14:11 mark of the third.
Forster (12:49) and Rastivo (12:07) scored just 42 seconds apart, both on feeds from freshman attack Chris Blewitt (Lincoln Park, N.J./Bergen Catholic) to jump out to a 12-6 lead heading into the final 12:00 of the third period.
Robert Morris responded with three consecutive goals over a span of 6:26 to pull to within three, 12-9, at the 4:24 mark of the third, but Saint Joseph’s took advantage of a pair of EMOs to explode on a 5-0 run on scores from Forster (3:26, 3rd), Rastivo (13:11), senior midfielder Mike Dougherty (Malvern, Pa./Malvern Prep) (12:05), Swanick (11:12), and Dougherty again (7:05) that completely shut down the Colonials’ momentum to push SJU out to a 17-9 advantage entering the final 7:05 of regulation.
A Colonial score with 3:09 to play would bring RMU to within seven, but Raucci netted his second of the day on a feed from senior attack Matt Sarcona (Northport, N.Y./Northport) to give the Hawks their 18th goal of the day with 59 seconds left to play.
Another RMU goal (:48) would bring the Colonials to within seven, but the 18-11 score would stand in favor of the home team as time expired.
For the game, Robert Morris held a 47-40 edge in shots and 36-28 edge in ground balls and earned 19 of the game’s 32 face-off possessions. However, Saint Joseph’s – which ranked second nationally in man-down defense entering Saturday’s game – held the Colonials to just two goals in seven EMO chances.
Additionally, the Hawks’ EMO unit took advantage of the 3:00 unreleasable RMU penalty, scoring three EMO goals during the span en route to five total on the day.
McGee (9) and Rastivo (8) combined for 17 shots while senior defenseman Will Farrell (St. Joseph’s Prep) was good for six ground balls and two caused turnovers. Sophomore midfielder Mike Lanham (Garnet Valley) went 11-of-23 from the X to win 11 of SJU’s 13 total face-off possessions.
Jones (4-3, 2-0 NEC) made a career-high 17 saves – including 11 in the second half – and allowed 10 goals in 57:04 for his fourth win of the season. Freshman goalkeeper Pat Dallon (Sound Beach, N.Y./Rocky Point) made save and allowed RMU’s last goal in the final 2:56.
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