Springfield, Mass. - February 19, 2022 - The Springfield College men's lacrosse team kicked off the 2022 campaign with an 18-14 victory over Nazareth on Stagg Field in non-conference play on Saturday afternoon. 

Springfield, which was receiving votes in the most recent USILA Division III National Poll, improved to 1-0 on the season.  For the Pride, it marked the first time since March 7, 2020, a span of 714 days, since it played in front of fans on Stagg Field.  The setback dropped the Golden Flyers to 0-1. 

Zac Schuette (Ballston Spa, N.Y.) was tremendous in the win as he netted a career-high nine points on eight goals and an assist.  In his Springfield debut, Joe Maimone (Allendale, N.J.) totaled three goals and two assists and Chris Santa Barbara (Hillsborough, N.J.) tacked on two goals and two helpers.  Steven Betsch (Port Washington, N.Y.) went 17-for-35 on face-offs and picked up seven ground balls and Jack Hamilton (Falmouth, Mass.) made 10 saves between the pipes.  Springfield finished the game with a 54-39 advantage in shots and a 42-40 edge in ground balls as each team won 18 face-offs.  

Brett Randall totaled six assists and two goal for the visitors, while Quinn McKercher added five points off four goals and a helper.  Eric Almquist finished the game with 13 saves and Tate Martinez picked up nine ground balls. 

The teams traded goals to start the game until the visitors pumped in back-to-back strikes to go up 4-2 with 4:38 left in the opening quarter.  The Pride would pull within 5-4 on a man-up strike from Maimone with 38 seconds left in the stanza, but Naz tacked on an unassisted marker by McKercher with 12 ticks remaining to allow the Golden Flyers to earn a 6-4 lead after one quarter of play.  

Springfield was dominant in the second quarter, scoring six times on 17 shots.  The Pride opened up the quarter with three unanswered goals, with the spurt being capped off by a strike from Patrick Watson (Franklin, Mass.) as he stepped into a shot with 8:00 left in the half.  After Kyle McEniry (Franklin, Mass.) found the back of the cage on an unassisted goal with 5:35 to make it an 8-7 game, the Golden Flyers scored two goals in a 17-second span to regain a 9-8 lead and force the Pride into a timeout.  Out of the break, Springfield closed out the frame with goals from Santa Barbara and Maimone to give the hosts a 10-9 edge heading into the break. 

It was a sloppy start to the second half for the Pride as Nazareth opened up the frame on a 3-1 scoring burst to take a 12-11 advantage with 4:10 on the clock.  However, Maimone took a feed from Santa Barbara with 1:14 left in the third and blistered in a shot into the top shelf from the left wing to kickstart a game-changing 6-0 run spanning the next seven-plus minutes.  After three-goals in 29 seconds to close out the third gave Springfield a 14-12 lead, the Pride's lead ballooned to 17-12 following Schuette's eighth of the game with 8:32 left in regulation.  Naz would get as close as 17-14 with 7:01 to play, but the Pride's defense came up big down the stretch, getting a pair of key caused turnovers from Connor Dubzinski (West Rutland, Mass.) to pull out the 18-14 triumph. 

Springfield will now gear up for a trip to Stevens next Saturday. 

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