Springfield, Mass. – April 2, 2024 – Graduate student Mason Nocito (Mahopac, N.Y.) registered his 100th career point and scored what proved to be the game winning goal as the Springfield College men's lacrosse team earned a 14-13 win over crosstown rival Western New England University on a rainy Tuesday night at Stagg Field.

Springfield, now winners of two straight, improved to 2-8 on the year, while Western New England moved to 4-6 overall.

Jake Degnan (Mahopac, N.Y.) powered Springfield's offense with five goals and one assist in addition to two ground balls, while Nocito posted three goals and three assists in the win. Bryan Stensrud (LaGrangeville, N.Y.) continued his impressive run with two goals and two assists to go along with a pair of ground balls, while Kevin Tierney (Glastonbury, Conn.) also tallied two goals for the Pride.

Vincent Scialdone (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) and Connor Roberts (Somers, Conn.) combined for a strong defensive effort with a combined 15 ground balls and three caused turnovers. Scialdone also went 17-for-30 at the face-off X for Springfield. In net, Kaden Quirk (Nahant, Mass.) earned the win with 14 saves, including stopping a shot at the buzzer to hold off the Golden Bears for the 14-13 victory.

After Jacob Roy gave Western New England a 1-0 lead a few minutes into the game, Springfield answered with three straight tallies including two from Degnan and one by Matt Webb (Northport, N.Y.) off a feed by Nocito. Nocito's helper in the first quarter marked the 100th point of his collegiate career, but both teams were deadlocked at three after 15 minutes of play.

Zachary Mein tallied Western New England's second goal of the game with 5:04 to play in the first and from that point until there was 9:11 remaining in the third, the Golden Bears outscored the Pride by an 8-3 margin for a 9-6 advantage. The visitors took a 7-5 lead into the halftime break and scored two of the first three goals of the third before Springfield began its game-winning push.

Degnan scored back-to-back tallies about ten seconds apart midway through the third, while Nocito scored back-to-back unassisted strikes to give Springfield a 10-9 lead. Stensrud then finished a pass from Nocito early in the fourth to push the Pride's margin to two at 11-9. Both teams traded goals back and forth when Brian Madden cut WNE's deficit to just one at 14-13 with 3:49 to play in regulation.

Western New England keeper Carter Randall saved Webb's attempt at an insurance goal with 1:28 remaining as the Golden Bears cleared the ball and called a timeout. Out of the break, the visitors set up a play where Quirk made two saves over the final 45 seconds of the game to keep Western New England off the board and secured the win for the homestanding Pride.

Springfield held a 33-32 edge in shots, a 38-33 differential in ground balls and went 22-for-26 on the clear.

The Pride will host Clark University in NEWMAC action on Saturday, April 6 at 1:00 pm on Stagg Field.

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