Sparkill, N.Y. - St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Lacrosse suffered a 20-4 setback to Frostburg State University on Saturday afternoon, in the team's East Coast Conference opener, at Spartan Field.
STAC received goals from Ryan Christensen (2), John Pena and Jeremy Schucker, but the high-powered offense of the visiting Bobcats was too much to handle.
Frostburg St. held the upper hand in shots (60-18) and ground balls (48-28) and went 20-for-20 on clears. STAC was 15-for-25 on clear attempts. On extra man opportunities, the Bobcats were 4-for-8, while the Spartans were 2-for-9.
STAC falls to 3-3 overall and 0-1 in ECC play with the loss, while Frostburg State remains perfect at 6-0 and 1-0 in conference action with the win.
Ryan Christensen scored the first goal for the Spartans, relying on a pass from teammate Matthew DeRosa to find the back of the cage with 11 minutes to play in the second quarter. Jeremy Schucker cut the visitor's lead in half, with an unassisted goal with eight minutes to play before halftime to make it 4-2. Ryan Christensen and John Pena added a pair of fourth quarter goals with the game already well in hand for the Bobcats.
For Frostburg State, Tanner Donaldson led the way with six points on four goals and two assists, while Jake Bowman had four goals. Owen McCallum (three goals, one assist), Austin Sipes (two goals, three assists), Seamus Kearney (two goals), Tyler Dooley (two goals), Bubba Love (one goal, two assists), Matt Begley (one goal) and Justin Hulse (one goal) also contributed to the Bobcats' offense.
Goalie Connor Reed (L, 1-1) got the start in the cage for STAC and made 15 stops on the afternoon, with Craig Peavy coming on in relief in the fourth quarter and making three saves. The trio of Mitch Meckley (W, 6-0), Nate Jones and Aidan Pierce combined to stop seven of eleven Spartan shots.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- STAC tallied 11 shots on goal, with Ryan Christensen registering four on net and John Pena recording three.
- Austin Palen scooped up game-high nine ground balls. Palen also caused two turnovers.
- Austin Palen went 10-for-21 on faceoffs for the Spartans.
UP NEXT
St. Thomas Aquinas visits Georgian Court University on Wednesday, March 22 at 3:00 p.m.