Brett Johnson

Herald Contributor

The Roger Williams University men’s lacrosse team defeated the Wentworth Institute of Technology Leopards 18-9 on Tuesday evening, April 25, in the final game of the regular season.

The Hawks entered the matchup with an 8-7 overall record and ranked fourth in the Commonwealth Coast Conference standings. The Leopards had a 6-9 record before Tuesday.

Bayside Field was slippery Tuesday night from downpouring rain. The home team lit up the gloomy field environment with their white and blue uniforms.

Freshman Dolan Jones started in goal for the Hawks. Opposite, junior Adam Dufault started for the Leopards.

Sophomore Peter Andersson of WIT won the first faceoff against RWU freshman Harrison Levesque.

Wentworth quickly established a two-goal lead in the first few minutes of the game. With 13:32 left in the first quarter, sophomore Chris Quinn scored. Twenty seconds later, Quinn scored again, assisted by senior Sean Farmer. The Hawks tried to stop the momentum with a timeout.

The timeout worked. Junior midfielder Justin MacIntyre scored RWU’s first goal with 12 minutes left in the first quarter. He was assisted by junior Eddie Hill. MacIntyre tied it up with another goal to make the score 2-2 with 6:04 left. The Hawks added two more goals to take the lead, both scored by freshman Jude Marzec. The first goal was assisted by senior Max Cammarota and the second by senior A.J. Core.

With 2:16 left in the quarter, Cammarota scored a goal of his own on a man-up opportunity and was assisted by Hill to bring the Hawks up by four goals. Cammarota scored again a minute later. Hill received the assist. The last goal of the quarter came with 46 seconds left. Core was assisted by Cammarota. The quarter ended with the Hawks up 8-2.

The Hawks received an own goal to extend their lead to seven about two and a half minutes into the second quarter. This goal would be the only goal of the second. Wentworth had control of the ball for most of the quarter, but RWU’s defense was too strong for the Leopards to break through. The half ended with a 9-2 score in favor of the home team.

Wentworth came out of halftime ready to get back into the game. Less than a minute into the quarter, sophomore Matt Larsen scored an unassisted goal. But the Hawks were not going let their large lead go that easily. With 11:10 left, Core scored to extend the lead back to seven. Senior John Listiano assisted. Hawks freshman Ali Abdul Sater scored his first goal of the season less than two minutes later and then was followed up by another RWU goal by freshman J.P. Shimko.

The Leopards answered with a goal by junior Kevin Butler. The goal, assisted by senior Mike Coakley, came with 7:16 left in the third quarter.

Core scored his third goal of the game with 4:52 left and then his fourth on a man-up opportunity, assisted by Cammarota, with 4:16 left to give the Hawks a double-digit lead. The Hawks added one more goal with five seconds left by sophomore Ryan Lewis. The third quarter ended with a score of 15-4 Hawks.

Fifteen seconds into the fourth quarter, Lewis scored again and was assisted by freshman Jack Sylvia. Sophomore Ryan McNabb, assisted by sophomore Chris Bova, added to Hawks’ lead with 12:49 left in the game.

Trying to lessen the damage, Butler scored for the Leopards a minute after the McNabb goal. He was assisted by Larsen.

The Hawks scored their final goal of the game with 9:49 left. Hill scored and Listiano was given the assist.

Wentworth began to rally late in the fourth quarter with four unanswered goals. Farmer scored his first goal of the game with 8:11 to go. Sophomore Jack Zaylor scored with 5:39 left and was assisted by Coakley. About 40 seconds later, Coakley scored his own goal to cut the Hawks’ lead back down to 10. The Leopards’ last goal would come with 3:13 left. Butler scored and Larsen assisted.

The final score of the game was 18-9 Hawks.

“I feel that today’s win was a nice confidence boost for the offense,” Core said. “The defense also made a lot of great stops over the course of the game.”

With the win, the Hawks cemented the No. 4 seed for the CCC tournament and will host No. 5 seed Curry College on Saturday, April 29, at 4:30 p.m.

“I see us using this momentum and making a run in the playoffs for the CCC championship,” Core said.