Mount Ida Rolls By JSC 20-3
Steve Noyes (left) scored a pair of goals in JSC's loss on Saturday while goalkeeper Branden Sawyer stopped 22 shots in his first career start in the cage
*Portions of the article courtesy of Mount Ida Sports Info
Newton, Mass. (March 21, 2009)
Johnson State College lacrosse opened their season at five-time defending North Atlantic Conference Champion Mount Ida College and fell to the Mustangs 20-3 on Saturday. The Mustangs improve to 2-3 overall, 1-0 in the NAC and extend their perfect winning streak in conference play to 38-0 under the direction of seventh year Head Coach Andrew Fink. The Badgers fall in their season opener dropping to 0-1 overall and 0-1 in conference competition.
With 11:46 remaining in the game, senior captain Brett Conley (Fairfield, CT/Fairfield Warde) fired in the 145th goal of his career to break the Mount Ida College men’s lacrosse record for goals scored.
Mount Ida scored the opening five goals in the first quarter. Senior Christopher Prophete (Waltham, MA/Waltham), sophomore’s Nate Prince (West Gardiner, ME/Gardiner), Matthew Savage (Peabody, MA/Peabody), and freshman Derek O’Reilly (East Setauket, NY/Ward Melville) started the offensive attack each scoring one a piece including two from Prince. The Mustangs led 5-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Badgers tallied a score in the first minute and a half of the second quarter from the stick of junior Steve Noyes (Barre, VT/Spaulding) making it 5-1. Noyes eventually scored two of the Badgers three goals in the contest.
The visitors notched their second goal on a dish from freshman Justin Nelson (Lakeville, MA/Bishop Connolly) to junior Erik Tillberg (Randolph, CT/Randolph Union) trailing 7-2. The Mustangs could not be stopped offensively scoring the next five out of six goals from O’Reilly, senior Anthony DiMaio (Agawam, MA/Agawam), Prophete, and two from Savage pulling away up 10-2 and not looking back.
Junior goalkeeper Branden Sawyer (East Greenwich, R.I./Greenwich) had a strong performance in goal for Johnson State, his first career start in the cage, making 22 saves. Four Ida keepers combined for the win and made eight saves combined.
Johnson State will play at Husson University on Saturday in another NAC contest while the Mustangs will travel to nationally ranked number 16 Tufts University this coming Monday to face the Jumbos starting at 3:30 p.m.