Springfield, Mass. - March 19, 2022 - In its New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) opener, the Springfield College men's lacrosse team downed Wheaton, 9-7, on Stagg Field on Saturday afternoon. 

Springfield is now 2-4 on the year, while Wheaton lost for the first time this season to drop to 7-1. 

 Zac Schuette (Ballston Spa, N.Y.) led all players with six points on four goals and two helpers, including three goals and an assist in the second quarter. Jack Hamilton (Falmouth, Mass.) made 14 saves between the pipes, Steven Betsch (Port Washington, N.Y.) was impressive at the "X", going 16-for-18 with seven ground balls, and Connor Roberts (Somers, Conn.) caused five turnovers. 

 Springfield held a 52-36 advantage in shots, a 41-26 edge in ground balls in the contest, and held the Lyons to 0-for-6 on man-up opportunities. 

 The visitors jumped out to a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter as Alec Morin sandwiched a pair of unassisted markers around a strike from Robert Sullivan on the doorstep.  After being held scoreless in the opening quarter, Springfield's offense came alive in the second quarter as it netted six goals on 18 shots to take a 6-4 lead into the break.  

Schuette buried a shot on the run at 14:07 to start a 4-0 scoring burst for the Pride that featured strikes from Patrick Watson (Franklin, Mass.), Nicholas Gorman (Valhalla, N.Y.) and another from Schuette.  After Wheaton's Alex Berg stepped into a shot in transition at 1:50 to even things up at 4-4, Riley Burgmyer (Somers, Conn.) shook his defender and bounced home a shot at 51 seconds to put the Pride back on top.  In a wild finish to the half, Schuette put together an incredible individual effort in the final seconds to beat the horn and give Springfield a 6-4 halftime edge. 

The teams would each find the back of the cage in the third, with the visitors striking just 90 seconds into the frame before Jarrett Nagengast (Bay Shore, N.Y) blistered a man-up marker at 8:05 to push the Pride's lead back to two goals at 7:05.

Each squad would score twice in the final 15 minutes of play, as Wheaton's Shane Ross snuck a shot inside the left post to make it 7-6 with 13:43 left in regulation.  However, Schuette netted his fourth of the game at 8:53 and Alek Turi (Glastonbury, Conn.) finished a Kyle McEniry (Franklin, Mass.) feed just over two minutes later to give the Pride a 9-6 lead.  The visitors would convert for a goal with 31 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.

The Pride will face a non-conference foe on Wednesday when it hosts Amherst at 7 pm.

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