Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/17/18
From Press Release
Senior attackman Mike Rastivo and rookie attackman Shane Fable combined for five goals and four assists as 11 total Hawks recorded at least one point in Saint Joseph’s 14-5 win over NJIT on Friday evening on Sweeney Field. After starting the season 0-3, the Hawks have won three in a row to even out at .500 while the Highlanders fall to 0-9.
Despite a windy, cold atmosphere, the Hawks’ offense was on fire as Rastivo went for two goals and a team-high three assists for a team-high five points, Fable recorded a team-high three goals for his first collegiate hat trick, an assist, and a team-high five ground balls, and both senior attackman Patrick O’Brien and senior midfielder Hayes McGinley hit the back of the net twice to lead the Hawks to their highest offensive output of the season.
Additionally, the trio of veteran transition midfielders in long pole Austin Smith (2g, 1a), Davis Stoner (1g, 1a), and Will McNamara (2a, Haverford School) added multi-point efforts and combined for seven ground balls and three caused turnovers.
“We’re pleased to get our third victory heading into conference play and sitting at 3-3,” said head coach Taylor Wray. “There were some bright spots to the game tonight. I thought it got a little sloppy there toward the end, but we got some production from some new people. It was great to see Shane [Fable] get on the scoresheet . . . I thought he made a lot of tough plays out there. I thought some of our transition players continued to excel. Davis [Stoner], Austin [Smith], and Will [McNamara] really set the tone for us early in the game and got us going. I think that was a key to the victory.”
Senior goalkeeper Pat Dallon (1-0) earned his first start of the season and made eight saves vs. four goals allowed in 57:13 for his second career victory between the pipes.
The Hawks jumped out to a 5-1 lead by the end of the first quarter with two-point efforts from Stoner, Rastivo, and Fable.
McGinley opened the scoring on an unassisted goal (13:14) before Stoner hit Smith just 22 seconds later for an early 2-0 SJU edge at the 12:52 mark.
NJIT’s Cole Robillard scored his first of three goals on the day at the 6:23 mark, but Rastivo took a feed from Fable and put away his first of the game with 3:26 remaining in the first.
Stoner (assisted by McNamara) and Fable (assisted by Rastivo) scored with 29 seconds and two seconds remaining on the clock, respectively, for the 5-1, first-quarter advantage.
Both teams put up two goals apiece in the second quarter, with Smith (assisted by McNamara) opening the scoring at the 11:53 mark and Rastivo (assisted by redshirt freshman midfielder Nicholas Vernacchio, Upper Dublin) closing the scoring at the 1:32 mark with a pair of Highlander goals sandwiched in between; Rastivo’s goal moved him into sole possession of second in career goals (113) on Hawk Hill.
Rastivo found Fable for the rookie’s second goal of the game to open up the third quarter (12:51), but Robillard struck back on an EMO goal at the 9:41 mark to cut NJIT’s deficit to five, 9-4.
From that point, the Hawks ripped off four consecutive goals to close out the third as Fable (4:06), senior midfielder Kyle Cain (2:32) and McGinley (1:49) put away unassisted scores before freshman attackman Thomas Halm took a feed from Smith and fired off his first collegiate goal just 15 seconds later (1:34).
With an eight-goal lead, 12-4, entering the fourth quarter, the Hawks held off the Highlander’s offensive attempts and put up two more scores as O’Brien scored twice (4:32, 3:56) within 36 seconds of one another, the latter on an EMO dish from freshman midfielder Austin Strazzulla, to push SJU’s lead out by 10, 14-4.
NJIT would tack on its fifth goal on a late score with 2:09 remaining, and that 14-5 score would stand as time expired.
For the game, SJU owned a 35-27 edge in shots, including a 16-5 third quarter in which the Hawks scored on every third shot they took. Saint Joseph’s dominated the ground ball game (30-17) and won 16 of the game’s 20 possessions from the face-off as freshman Billy Jardeleza went a blistering 12-of-15 from the X to lead SJU’s trio of face-off specialists on the night.
Of Dallon’s eight saves, four came in the third quarter alone as the senior backstopped the Hawks to their third consecutive victory. Freshman Tucker Almany made his collegiate debut in the final 2:47 and made one save, on an Aaron Forster shot with five ticks remaining, vs. one goal allowed.