NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team dropped its annual Connor Roberts Memorial Game against Norwich University Saturday, falling 20-8 at Sabine Field.
Since 2015, the two teams have played annually in memory of Connor Roberts, a former Norwich lacrosse player who tragically passed away from a sudden heart attack after his sophomore season in 2014. Connor, who had two siblings play sports for Castleton, has his life and impact on both Norwich and Castleton University memorialized every year with the Climb for Connor and CJR Memorial Game events during the school year. This year's Climb for Connor event was canceled due to COVID-19.
Norwich outshot Castleton 57-36 on the day, and the Cadets held an edge in the turnover battle as Castleton turned it over 27 to Norwich's 14. The Cadets went 22-for-24 on the clear, while the Spartans managed a 19-for-26 day clearing the ball. Norwich took advantage of its extra-man opportunities, going 6-for-9 on man-up chances while Castleton was 0-for-4.
Collin Johnson scored four times for the Spartans, while Dawson Nalette added two goals and an assist in the contest. Jonah Janaro also score twice for the Spartans. Tyan Hayford had a team-high seven ground balls, while Ryan Palmisano had six of his own while going 13-for-30 on face-offs. Maxx Ingison suffered the loss in goal, playing 42-plus minutes and allowing 16 goals with 10 saves. Rookie Chris Wilk made his collegiate debut in relief of Ingison, playing 17-plus minutes and making six saves while allowing four scores.
For the Cadets, eight players found their way onto the scoresheet including six players with multi-goal games. Jack Anzalone led all players with nine points on five goals and four assists, while Kevin Horchak added three goals and three assists for Norwich. Payden Masaracchia and Russell Gilligan each had hat tricks, while Parker Campbell and Clyde Tamburro had two goals and an assist each. Thomas Muraski had eight ground balls with a 17-for-30 day on face-offs, and Sean Wallace caused three turnovers on defense. Nick Kandra made six saves in 45 minutes on his way to victory, allowing four goals before giving way to Andrew Morgan, who made two saves and allowed four goals in the final 15 minutes.
Norwich scored the first five goals of the game to take a 5-0 lead 10 minutes into play before Nalette got Castleton on the board with an assist from Trey Lang. Norwich took a 6-1 lead less than two minutes later, but Lang notched another assist—this time finding Johnson—to make it 6-2 with one minute to play in the first quarter. The Cadets again scored five unanswered goals in the second quarter, running out to an 11-2 lead at halftime.
The Spartans scored the first goal of the second half, as Johnson found the back of the net unassisted, but Norwich notched back-to-back goals to go ahead 13-3 with 5:38 to play in the third quarter. Nalette scored his second of the game on an assist from Ty Bowen just 39 seconds later, but Norwich notched four more goals before the end of the third quarter to carry a 17-4 lead into the final 15 minutes.
Norwich pushed the lead to 20-4 after four fourth-quarter goals in a seven-minute stretch, but Castleton continued to battle, scoring the final four goals of the game. Johnson finished his hat trick with 6:04 to play before Janaro got his first of the game just moments later. Johnson added his fourth and final goal with 3:49 to play, and Janaro again followed with a quick score to give the game its final score of 20-8.
Castleton returns to action Wednesday evening at Utica at 4 p.m.
