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MUSTANGS FALL TO NON-CONFERENCE KEAN UNIVERSITY
The Mount Ida College men's lacrosse team dropped their first loss of the 2009 season, 12-7, at Kean University in non-conference action this Saturday afternoon in Union, New Jersey. The Mustangs, who locked up a victory in the season opener against hosting Curry College in double overtime 13-12 on Thursday, fall to 1-1 overall.
After the hosts opened the contest with a goal at 12:30, the Mustangs answered right back on a score by Matt Savage (Peabody, MA/Peabody) from senior captain Brett Conley (Fairfield, CT/Fairfield Warde) knotting the score at 1-1 with 8:33 to go in the first quarter.
Kean tacked on two more goals towards the end of the half taking the 3-1 advantage with 2:25 left in the opening quarter. Senior Christopher Prophete (Waltham, MA/Waltham) notched his first score of the season off a feed from freshman Billy Gerke (Essex, VT/Rice Memorial) at the 1:21 mark toward the end of the first to pull within two trailing 3-2.
There wasn't much action in the first eight minutes of the second quarter with no scores from either squad. Kean eventually pulled ahead by two up 4-2 with 7:12 to go before the half. The Mustangs answered on an unassisted goal by Conley with 6:28 remaining before the midway point down one at 4-3. Unfortunately for Mount Ida, the hosts powered two consecutive scores immediately following to pull ahead 6-3 with 2:20 to go.
Mount Ida countered less than a minute later to come within two of Kean at 6-4 on a sophomore Paul Battapaglia (Clinton, CT/Morgan) goal with 1:37 remaining in the first half. With time winding down, the hosts fired in another with 26 seconds on the clock leading 7-4 going into the second half.
Five consecutive goals for Kean in the third gave the hosts the 12-4 advantage with no answer from the Mustangs who failed the score the entire quarter. Mount Ida netted the final three goals in the fourth quarter by Conley, senior captain Leo Shidler (Peabody, MA/Peabody), and senior Anthony DiMaio (Agawam, MA/Agawam) but it wasn't enough to mount a comeback. The Mustangs ultimately dropped the 12-7 non-conference loss.
Junior goaltender Matt Vernik (Bethany, CT/Amity Regional) spent the bulk of the game between the pipes stopping seven shots but giving up 11 out of the 12 goals. Freshman goalie Justin Famiglietti (Peabody, MA/Peabody) denied six balls giving up one goal in only 19 minutes.
The Mustangs will stay on the road and head to New England Small College Athletic Conference (GNAC) Amherst College next Saturday to face the Jeffs starting at 1:00 p.m.
