ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Union College men's lacrosse team got off to a hot start, but the fourth-seeded Garnet Chargers saw their hopes of an upset dashed in a 17-7 loss to third-seeded and #12/10 Rochester Institute of Technology in the Liberty League Championship game on Sunday afternoon at Judson Stadium.
First-year
Garrett Salit was the only Garnet Charger with multiple points on a goal and an assist, and with his tally set a new school record for goals by a first-year. Five other players recorded one goal apiece for Union (8-13) as well.
The visitors started strong, scoring on three of their first six goals to take an early 3-1 edge. Junior
Mekhi Taylor found the net on Union's third possession of the game to open the scoring, finding the net off a feed from first-year
Luke Allen. Union won the subsequent faceoff and first-year
Hayden Caulkins scored less than a minute later from junior
Mike Wall to double the lead. After RIT got on the board, Salit scored to put the visitors up 3-1 with 9:46 left in the first.
After the teams went more than seven minutes without scoring, RIT exploded for four goals in the final 2:42 of the quarter to take a 5-3 lead after 15 minutes.
The second and third quarters belonged to the Tigers, outscoring Union by a combined 11-1 margin to break the game open. RIT scored 11 times on 15 on-target shots over the two frames, while RIT goalie Alex Zborowski made six saves on the other end to keep Union at bay.
The Garnet Chargers finished by outscoring the Tigers 3-1 in the fourth frame, with junior
Joe Hennessey and sophomores
Mac McGovern and
Bo Bensley rounding out the scoring for the visitors. Union outshot RIT by a 17-3 margin in the final period.
Junior
Nick Lynch made six saves over the first 27:49 to finish his season with 246 stops, the third-most in a season in program history. First-year
Braswell Vachon made one save in his collegiate debut, while senior
Gavin Trahan made two stops over the final 20:15 of the game.
