NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Norwich University (8-4, 5-0 GNAC) held off Saint Joseph's College (5-7, 2-3 GNAC), 14-10, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) North Division men's lacrosse contest on Saturday afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

The Monks kicked off the scoring with two goals just 16 seconds apart early in the first quarter, as Tiger Hopkins (Leeds, Maine) and Tim Goodfellow (Wayland, Mass.) lifted the Royal Blue to a 2-0 edge with 12:47 left in the opening frame.

The Cadets erased the deficit and then some, closing out the first quarter with four straight goals to secure a 4-2 cushion. Grad Nathaniel Girardin (Brunswick, Maine) scored twice in the first nine minutes of the second stanza to offset a Drew Fleury tally for the Cadets as the visitors trailed 5-4 with 6:15 before the break. Norwich capped the first half with goals from Mason McMahon and David Myers and began the third with a Jack Haley strike to secure an 8-4 cushion with 13:43 left in the penultimate period.

Matt Denman (Brentwood, N.H.), Girardin, and Xavier Michaud (Wales, Maine) found the back of the net in the third quarter as the Monks faced a 10-7 deficit going into the fourth frame.

Norwich managed to put the game away with a 4-1 run in the first 11 minutes of the final quarter, securing a 14-8 cushion with 4:23 left. Hopkins and Girardin hit pay dirt for the Monks in the closing minutes, but the Cadets' scoring surge proved to be the difference.

TEAM STATS:

Saint Joseph's held the lead in shots (47-36) but steered only 20 bids on target (43.5%) while Norwich registered 27 shots on goal for a 75% rate…The Cadets held the lead in ground balls (46-40), caused turnovers (20-13), and face-off wins (15-13) on the afternoon.

THE KEEPERS:

SJC freshman Reed Wescott (Windham, Maine) made 13 saves with seven ground balls in the losing effort while Norwich netminder Luke Boland tallied 10 saves and seven ground balls for the hosts.

LEADERS – SAINT JOSEPH'S:

• Girardin scored four goals on nine shots
• Hopkins added two goals, two assists, and a pair of ground balls
• Goodfellow chipped in with a goal, two assists, and three ground balls
• Freshman Zander Kirk (Bath, Maine) was 13-28 on face-off bids and scooped up 10 ground balls
• Sophomore Nick Wesley (Peabody, Mass.) contributed six ground balls and two caused turnovers
• Sophomore Kevin Wood (Danvers, Mass.) posted three caused turnovers

LEADERS – NORWICH:

• Haley scored two goals with an assist and four ground balls
• Fleury chipped in with two goals and three ground balls
• Mitchell McKay scored twice with a pair of ground balls
• Thomas Muraski was 15-28 on face-off attempts with nine ground balls
• McMahon added a goal, six ground balls, and six caused turnovers

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING:

With the loss, Saint Joseph's falls to 1-15 all-time versus Norwich University. The Monks defeated the Cadets (16-12, 4/8/23) for the first time in team history in Standish last spring.

NEXT!

Saint Joseph's will host Dean College on Tuesday at 7:00 PM.

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