UTICA, N.Y. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team suffered a road loss on Wednesday night, falling at Utica by a final score of 13-6 at Gaetano Stadium.
 
The Spartans fall to 0-3 on the season, while Utica won its first contest of the year and is 1-0. The Pioneers led in shots, 59-32, putting 27 shots on goal to Castleton's 22. The Spartans had 23 turnovers to Utica's 20, and Castleton was 17-of-22 on clears while Utica was 21-of-25. Utica also held a 43-30 edge in ground balls thought both teams won 11 face-offs.
 
Trey Lang had a four-point game for the Spartans, notching two goals and two assists, scoring on both of his shot attempts on the day. Chris LaBonte notched a hat trick, scoring three times on eight shots on goal, while causing three turnovers, picking up seven ground balls and going 11-for-21 at the face-off dot. Jonah Janaro scored the other Spartan goal, while Dawson Nalette picked up an assist. Janaro and Jason Venezia collected five ground balls apiece, with Venezia adding three caused turnovers. Chris Wilk earned his first career start in goal, shouldering the loss while making 14 saves between the pipes.
 
John Avery led Utica with five points, scoring four times and adding an assist. James Daniele, Dale Wagner and Dylan Dunham had three points apiece, with Daniele and Wagner each scoring two goals with an assist, and Dunham scoring once with two assists. Jacob Hyer rounded out the multi-point scorers for Utica with a goal and an assist. Jozef Korpics earned the victory with 16 saves in 60 minutes of action for the Pioneers.
 
Utica got on the board first, scoring less than four minutes into the contest when Wagner notched his first goal of the game. Castleton responded just three minutes later, when LaBonte scored his first of the game. Utica took a lead once more with less than six minutes to go in the opening quarter, as Avery found the back of the goal, but the Spartans again leveled the score at 2-2 when Lang potted his first goal of the day. Utica bounced back once again, however, striking twice more before the end of the first quarter to take a 4-2 lead after 15 minutes.
 
Utica extended its streak to four unanswered goals and a 6-2 lead midway through the second quarter, but LaBonte stopped the run to make it a 6-3 game with 6:49 to play in the half. Utica tacked on one more score before the half, taking a 7-3 lead into the third quarter.
 
The Pioneers scored the first three goals out of the half, taking a 10-3 lead with less than five minutes to play in the quarter. Janaro made it a 10-4 game with a score just 17 seconds after a Utica goal, but the Pioneers stretched the lead to 12-4 before the end of the frame—including a last-second score from Dunham.
 
LaBonte and Lang scored back-to-back goals less than one minute apart for Castleton to make it a 12-6 game, but Utica capped the scoring with 7:22 remaining in the game to make it a 13-6 final.
 
The Spartans are back in action on the road Saturday, playing at Trinity (Conn.) at 2 p.m.