FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Courtesy of Emmanuel Athletics Communications
MEDFORD, Mass. - Fourteen players scored goals and 18 tallied points overall as the Tufts University men's lacrosse team defeated Emmanuel College 25-5 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championship at Bello Field Wednesday afternoon.
Tufts, the two-time defending NCAA champion, advances to the second round on Saturday when they will host SUNY Cortland. The Red Dragons were a 13-5 winner at Western New England in NCAA first round action today. Game time at Bello Field Saturday is tentatively set for 1 pm.
Zach Richman led Tufts with five goals today, while Austin Carbone's six points (3 goals, 3 assists) paced the Jumbos overall. Lucas Johnson contributed two goals with three assists, while Michael Mattson added three goals with one assist. Freshmen Ben Connelly and Henry Hollen scored the first goals of their collegiate careers in the game.
The Jumbos improved to 17-2 overall this spring and have now won 15 straight NCAA games at Bello dating back to 2011. This is the third straight year Tufts has played Emmanuel in the first round and eliminated the Saints. The 2014 score was 24-2 and last season it was 21-6.
The Saints were led today by two goals and an assist from senior Chris Curtis(Ashland, Mass.). Junior Donnie Litzelman (Stratham, N.H.), senior Max Mercier(Lincolnville, Me.), and freshman Max Bolduc (Lewiston, Me.) also scored goals for the visitors.
Tufts led 9-2 at the end of the first quarter. Richman scored three of their first four goals, all assisted by Ben Andreycak. An Austin Carbone from Jake Gillespie goal made it 5-0 before Curtis tallied back-to-back goals pulling Emmanuel within 5-2. Carbone and John Uppgreen both scored and assisted goals in the final 3:24 of the first for Tufts.
The Jumbos out-scored Emmanuel 7-0 in the second quarter to lead 16-2 at halftime. Johnson's unassisted goal at 13:50 of the third quarter capped a 12-0 run by Tufts overall. Litzelman scored from Curtis for the Saints at 11:01 of the third before the Jumbos added six in a row to lead 23-3 late in the period. Mercier and Bolduc's goals came in the last 68 seconds of the third quarter making it 23-5 heading into the fourth.
Tufts freshman Danny Murphy scored and assisted the only goals of the fourth quarter to wrap up the scoring.
Four different Jumbos took face-offs with Sawyer Dew winning nine of 11 and Hollen earning four of five. Tufts won 25 of 34 overall. Brendan Treanor and Curt Townshend both finished with four groundballs for Tufts. Jon Conley started in goal for the Jumbos and made four saves in one half of play while earning the win. Ben Shmerler played the second half and made one save.
Senior Nick DelMonaco (Billerica, Mass.), and juniors Brendan Gallagher (Solon, Ohio), and Chris Baglivi (Mattituck, N.Y.) all caused two turnovers for Emmanuel defensively. Gallagher scooped up five groundballs while senior Pat Heffernan(Pembroke, Mass.) had four. Sophomore goalie Austin Rosenberg (Ronkokoma, N.Y.) made 10 saves in three quarters of action for the Saints. Fellow freshmanCole Scadden (San Diego, Calif.) came on for the fourth and stopped three shots.
Tufts had a 67-16 advantage in shots for the game and won the groundball battle 42-27.
Curtis finishes his career as the program's all-time leader in points, goals, and assists, while multiple members of the senior class are tied for the program-lead in games played. Heffernan has started the most games of any individual in program history. The senior class finishes their career with 33 consecutive GNAC wins, three straight GNAC titles, and three straight NCAA tournament berths.