By: Connor Blake, Staff Writer
On what felt like a perfect Tuesday night to honor the seniors on the USM Men’s Lacrosse team, the Huskies took on the UMass Boston Beacons. They fought hard but ultimately came up short to the Beacons, losing 13-7.
Prior to the start of the action on Tuesday, the Huskies honored and recognized their three departing seniors; midfielder Jake Schoenberg, a marketing major, defensemen Sam Hornblower, an accounting major, co-captain and attacker Paul Leonardo who majors in mechanical engineering.
Beacon sophomore Conor Lenfest played a key role in the opening quarter, scoring twice and earning an assist in the final three minutes of the quarter. This made all the difference, as it broke a 2-2 tie to give the Beacons a 5-2 lead after the first 15 minutes of action.
Lenfest wasn’t done, as he kept the hot hand going into the second quarter of play scoring another goal. He had a role in four consecutive Beacon goals resulting in what would be a 6-2 lead for them early. The Huskies matched the Beacons in the second quarter with two goals of their own, coming from sophomore marketing major Joe Cullinan and Junior general management major Tristan Dundas. However, they still found themselves down 7-4 heading into the half.
Coming out of the half it was clear that the Huskies had made some adjustments on the defensive end, but so did the Beacons. The third quarter only saw one goal, and it came from the webbing of Junior Derek Caruso from UMass Boston making it a 8-4 lead going into the last quarter of the senior night game.
Down 8-4, the Huskies got some life from Schoenberg, and sophomore sports management major Steve GIlbert to pull within two of the Beacons. That being said, the Beacons found some life of their own starting with Lenfest scoring another goal, which triggered a run of five consecutive Boston goals which his fourth and fifth goals of the night. Sophomore Jack O’Brien also joined the party with two goals of his own making it 13-6.
With only one minute remaining, the Huskies tallied on one more goal from junior criminology major Bryce Randall to finish off the game and bring it to a final score of 13-7.
For the Beacons, freshman Daragh Fahey finished the night with two goals and one assist, and Caruso added two goals as well. Senior goalie Cameron Dixon had an outstanding game stopping 19 out of 43 shots on goal.
Dundas led the scoring for the Huskies with two goals, while Schoenberg, Randall and Cullinan each had a goal and one assist. Sophomore history major and goalie Griffin Hanson finished with 13 saves on 46 shots on goal.
This win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Beacons and kept their playoff hopes intact, and improved their overall record to 3-13 and 2-5 in conference play. Unfortunately for the Huskies this brought their record to 6-7 overall and 3-4 in Little East Conference games, hurting their playoff chances.
The Huskies Lacrosse team is not done yet as the Little Eastern Conference championship kicks off on Tuesday, April 30.