PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Theodores '25

STANDISH, Maine – Grad attack Xavier Michaud (Wales, Maine) scored five goals – including the 100th of his career – to help Saint Joseph's College (3-2, 1-0 GNAC) kick off Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play with a decisive 19-7 victory over Elms College (1-2, 0-1 GNAC) in men's lacrosse action at the SJC Athletics Complex on Saturday afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

The visiting Blazers kicked off the contest with a 2-0 lead, as Jesse Hagen (Cold Spring, N.Y.) hit pay dirt at the 11:25 mark and Luciano Jordan Canino (Dalton, Mass.) struck 1:05 later to provide their team with the early advantage. The Monks answered en force however, as senior Tim Goodfellow (Wayland, Mass.) scored off a Nathaniel Girardin (Brunswick, Maine) feed with 9:54 left in the second stanza to open up an 11-1 outbreak that saw the Royal Blue carry a resounding 12-3 cushion into halftime.

Hagen cut off the Monks' scoring run when he netted his second goal of the game 3:03 into the third quarter, but St. Joe's proceeded to register six straight tallies during the remainder of the penultimate period and held an 18-4 lead after freshman Brandon Cavicchi (Kingston, Mass.) found the back of the net with 1:11 left in the frame.

Senior Ian Barker (Norton, Mass.) capped the SJC scoring ledger with his second goal of the season at the 13:54 mark of the fourth quarter.

MILESTONE MET:

Michaud became just the fourth SJC men's lacrosse player to reach the 100-goal mark for their career when he scored his fifth goal of the afternoon off a Goodfellow pass with 11:26 left in the third period. He Joins Michael Finn '19 (169 goals), Jonathan Horgan '12 (111), and Paul Dolewa '12 (104) on the exclusive list.

TEAM STATS:

Saint Joseph's held the lead in shots (64-27), shots on goal (43-15), ground balls (46-29), caused turnovers (19-9), and face-off wins (18-11) in today's triumph.

THE KEEPERS:

St. Joe's deployed three netminders in the win, as junior Liam Greene (Mansfield, Mass.) allowed three goals and made a pair of saves in the first half, freshman Reed Wescott (Windham, Maine) posted five stops and yielded to goals in 21:21 minutes, and first-year Nic Michaud (Wales, Maine) made one save while allowing two scores in 8:39 of duty.

Elms freshman goalie Casey Dmochowski (Rutland, Mass.) kept the score closer than it could have been by making 24 saves in a complete-game performance.

LEADERS – SAINT JOSEPH'S:

• Michaud led the SJC offense with five goals on 12 shots
• Girardin added four goals, two assists, and three ground balls
• Goodfellow tacked on two goals, three assists, and two ground balls
• Freshman Cam Raymond (Saco, Maine) chipped in with a goal and an assist
• Sophomore Matt Denman (Brentwood, N.H.) contributed a pair of assists with two ground balls
• Grad Connor Bogdanski (Southington, Conn.) added four ground balls and four caused turnovers
• Freshman Zander Kirk (Bath, Maine) won 8-of-14 face-off attempts with seven ground balls
• Sophomore Nick Wesley (Peabody, Mass.) added three ground balls and two caused turnovers

LEADERS – ELMS:

• Hagen notched two goals and three ground balls
• Canino added a pair of goals on five shots
• Freshman Cam Gillis (Feeding Hills, Mass.) picked up four ground balls and two caused turnovers

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING:

The Monks are 1-0 versus Elms College, which is sponsoring men's lacrosse as a varsity sport for the first time this spring.

NEXT!

The Monks will play a pair of games during SJC spring break, starting with a 3:00 PM game at Gwynedd Mercy on Monday. St. Joe's will play at Moravian at 2:00 PM on Wednesday before returning to New England in time for an 11:00 GNAC contest at Johnson & Wales University on Saturday, March 16th.

$website.include("/bp")