RWU men’s lacrosse team defeated Nichols College 7-4, at home on Bayside turf on Tuesday evening’s game played in the beautiful sunny weather on Morgan’s Message Dedication Day.
Morgan’s Messages is a non-profit organization that promotes student-athlete mental health by sharing experiences, resources, and knowledge. The whole team was wearing bracelets and stickers on their helmets in support. The Hawks struck first with a goal from graduate student, Kevin Murphy, 3:33 into the game.
“So far, we are doing really good. Compared to last year, the team has improved a lot. We’re finding balance and really working together as a team”, said freshman Carter Shelton. “We want to just really stick to our own game, Nichols plays a really slow game so our offense being really fast helped us out getting through the clear and getting the ball into the offensive possession.”
As this season is ending, Shelton commented on how they have improved as a team this season, “When other teams score, we get down on ourselves a lot. And so far, we’ve been doing a good job of working towards being better about that.”
Murphy had three goals for the Hawks to take a 4-2 lead after the first quarter. The defenses then stayed tall for the rest of the game, as Nichols scored with 7:36 left in the first half. Senior Matt Hemmert then replied with a man-up opportunity, but Nichols scored to send the game into halftime behind by one, with the score of 5-4.
Shelton said head coach Kevin Gould was pleased at half saying, “he was just repeating play your game play your game, we’ve got them.”
Senior captain Tyler Zanini added, “[Coach Gould] was positive. I think we were doing some good things on defense, good things on offense. He just told us to keep working hard in the second half, and it was going to be a gritty half.”
Finally, junior AJ DaRin said, “It was a close game at half. We struggled recently in the third quarter, so we kind of just wanted to win the third quarter.”
The Hawks came out in the second half with junior, Brian Gazard scoring at 6:07 to take a 6-4 lead. The two sides went scoreless until freshmen Riley Spellman scored again on a man-up opportunity with 33 seconds left in the game. Murphy scored three goals on five shots, while senior Matt Halpin, Gazard, and Spellman each had one goal. Zanini led the way with five caused turnovers and five ground balls, while senior Mike Intravaia contributed two turnovers.
To keep this positive energy going in the playoffs, Shelton says the key is to, “Get hot. We’ve had a nine-game win streak. We want to get back to where we were during that high energy, team healthy, and just moving fast.” Zanini adds, “I think we are catching our stride right now. It was a big win today, getting us to three seed, and I think we’re feeling good heading into the playoffs.” DaRin shares how important it is to have a close team heading into the playoffs, “We have a close team, so we’re always together, we always make time. Defense meets with defense, offense meets with offense, and being together six days a week practicing always helps.”
Sophomore Aaron D’Aversa made 12 saves and allowed four goals in the home regular season finale. RWU (12-4, 5-2 CCC) will play Hartford on Saturday, April 20 at 12:00 p.m. before learning their CCC (Commonwealth Coast Conference) Tournament opponents. They will have two home games for conference play but must win to stay in.
