April 17, 2021 –
The Saint Joseph’s Hawks men’s lacrosse team kept their NEC unbeaten streak in tact defeating Bryant 13 – 5 on the road. The Hawks stay in sole possession of first place in the league, and are in prime position to earn the top-seed and home field advantage in the conference postseason tournament.
The Hawks took control of the game on the defensive and offense sides of the field. Goalkeeper Tucker Almany set a career-mark of 15 saves to keep Bryant off the scoreboard. Offensively face-off specialist Zach Cole won 20 of 22 faceoffs to surpass 400 career face-off wins. He won the first 15 in the contest, a critical stat in lacrosse. If your team has the ball, the other team cannot score, and Cole gave SJU that edge. He closed out the game winning the last five. Cole also had a game-high 13 ground balls.
“That was an awesome team win for us,” Cole said. “Travelling up to Rhode Island and playing a tough Bryant team is never easy. It felt great to get possessions for my team, as that is the ultimate goal of the position. They battled us really hard, and I am sure we will see them again in the postseason.”
Evan Campbell scored three goals and handed out two assists to match his career-high in points in a single game.
Bryant had an early 2 – 1 lead. The Hawks answered by scoring the next seven goals. Campbell found the back of the net twice as did Tucker Brown in that run which gave SJU an 8 – 2 lead midway through the third quarter. The Hawks closed out the scoring with goals from Levi Anderson and Cole.
“That was a well-earned victory over a very good lacrosse team,” said Saint Joseph’s Coach Taylor Wray. “Every time you play the Bryant Bulldogs, you know you are going to be in for a really physical, highly-contested game. The face-off game was highly tilted in our favor, which stopped Bryant from making their traditional runs, and we made some plays in transition which allowed us to separate.”
Matt Bohner scored 2 goals and Matt Tufano registered 2 assists.
“That was an incredible showing of what our offense is capable of,” Campbell said. “It started with how well our defense was today, and that gave our offense the confidence to operate at a high level.”
Saint Joseph’s did turn the ball over 25 times to 18 by Bryant.
The Bulldogs got a team-high 2 goals from Austin Kent.
The regular season ends next week with a home game against LIU.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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