Worcester, Mass. - April 24, 2019 - Despite holding an 11-8 lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Springfield College men's lacrosse team was bested by host Clark University, 14-11, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference play on Wednesday at Granger Field.

The win lifted Clark's record to 10-6, 5-1 in conference play, while the Pride dropped to 7-9, 4-2. 

Clark owned a 43-36 advantage in shots for the game and held a slight 37-35 edge in ground balls as both teams won 15 face-offs.  

Zachary Schuette (Ballston Spa, N.Y.) totaled two goals and an assist for the Pride, while Lucas Habich (Little Silver, N.J.), Kyle Murakami (South Burlington, Vt.) and Joe Hawley (Poulsbo, Wash.) each scored twice.  Cole Finerty (Kensington, N.H.) totaled 15 saves between the pipes for Springfield and Joseph Cameron (Stoneham, Mass.) picked up seven ground balls.

After Clark opened up the scoring at the 12:55 mark of the opening quarter, Springfield netted three-straight goals from Hawley, Murakami, and Habich in a span of 2:09 to open up a 3-1 advantage with 9:27 left in the first.  The teams would trade a pair of goals to make it a 5-3 game after 15 minutes of play, with Schuette converting with no time left on the clock to close out the frame.

Hawley delivered his second goal of game with six minutes left in the second quarter to push the Pride's advantage to 6-4, only to have the hosts erupt for four goals in less than three minutes to gain an 8-6 edge.  Cole Pecora (North Haven, Conn.) would get free for an unassisted marker with 2:23 on the clock as Springfield went into the halftime break trailing 8-7. 

The third quarter belonged to Springfield as it outscored the Cougars by a 4-0 margin to regain an 11-8 cushion.  Zane Smallidge (Niantic, Conn.) started off the scoring at 10:45 before Schuette beat his man from behind the cage at 8:20.  Habich produced a highlight reel goal as he finished with his back to the cage, flipping a shot past the Clark netminder from six yards out, before Justin Schneider (Norwalk, Conn.) beat the shot clock at 1:28 off an awesome feed from Pecora. 

Clark would respond with an impressive fourth quarter, stringing together six unanswered goals in the first nine-plus minutes to open up a 14-11 edge.  Springfield tried to use a late rally, getting goal from Jack Vail (Franklin, Mass.) with 2:45 left in regulation, but would come up short in the conference setback. 

Springfield will close out the regular season on Saturday when it travels to Wheaton for a 1 pm tilt.

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