SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The #11/15 Union College men's lacrosse team scored the final eight goals of the game to surge past Muhlenberg College by a 17-7 score in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon at Frank Bailey Field at Bertagna-Class of 1985 Stadium.
Senior
Henry Quaintance and sophomore
Emmett Lyne led all scorers with three goals apiece, a career-high total for both players. Lyne added an assist to tie for the game high with four points, matched by seniors
Michael Shaw (two goals, two assists) and
Zach Davis (one goal, three assists). In total, a season-high 11 different players found the net for Union in the win.
Senior
Matthew Paolatto had another big game, winning 17-of-23 faceoffs, grabbing 11 ground balls and scoring once, while classmate
Dan Donahue turned aside 15 shots between the pipes.
Union scored the only two goals of a slow-paced first quarter, with Lyne breaking the ice 4:01 into the contest and senior
Peter Kip scoring 3:30 later to double the lead. Donahue stopped all five on-target attempts by Muhlenberg in the opening frame.
Following a Muhlenberg goal to start the second stanza, the Garnet Chargers came back with four straight goals to take a 6-1 lead. Quaintance scored twice and Davis chipped in a goal and two assists for the home team during the run, which was bookended by man-up tallies from Quaintance and Kip. However, the Mules responded with three goals in the final 2:23 of the frame to get back within a pair after 30 minutes.
The teams traded goals during a back-and-forth third period, as the home team had a response to every Muhlenberg score. Junior
Hazen Pike opened the quarter with his second goal of the year to build the lead back up to three, and goals from Shaw, Paolatto and Lyne kept the Garnet Chargers ahead by that margin headed to the fourth.
Union then put the game away with a dominant fourth quarter, scoring seven unanswered goals and outshooting Muhlenberg 14-3. Junior
Patrick Reilly started the run with his first tally of the season, jumpstarting a string of four goals in less than three minutes that included goals from senior
Justin Greene, sophomore
Matt McKenzie and Quaintance off a beautiful backdoor feed from Kip.
Shaw followed with another man-up tally, finishing off a 4-for-5 effort on the player advantage for the home team, and goals from senior
Jake Mabardy and Lyne finished off the scoring.
Union finished the game with a 43-38 edge in shots and a 20-8 edge at the faceoff X. The special teams were excellent on both ends, going 4-for-5 on the man advantage and killing off all three man-down situations.
After taking a break for finals, Union will return to action on March 20 when the team heads to Baltimore to take on Middlebury College in a nationally ranked battle beginning at 7 p.m. at the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame's Tierney Field.
