BOSTON, Mass. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team took the road on a rainy Tuesday night, traveling to UMass Boston where it was upended 28-8 by the Little East Conference's regular-season champions.
The Beacons finished the LEC slate unbeaten at 8-0 and improved to 14-2 overall this season. Castleton is 2-13 overall and 2-5 in league play. The Beacons had a 75-46 edge in shots in the contest, helped in large part by winning 32-of-40 face-offs. UMass Boston collected a 62-24 edge in ground balls committed 20 turnovers to Castleton's 26. The Spartans were 26-of-39 on the clear and the Beacons went 15-of-20.
Cam Frankenhoff netted a hat-trick for Castleton, while
Chris LaBonte had three points on two goals and an assist.
Casey Meczywor and
Griffin Weller had two assists each, while
Connor Rider,
Will Briggs and
Hunter Sarro added goals. Meczywor led the team with six ground balls and
Luc Issa caused a team-high three turnovers.
Chris Wilk made 16 saves in goal before giving way to
Myles French, who stopped eight shots in 13 minutes.
Four Beacon players had four points or more, led by Gavin Admirand's six-point night on two goals and four assists. Jacob Banks had four goals, Colin Ford had three goals and an assist and Michael Claflin had a goal and three helpers. Jason McNeany and Jack Dobrzynski combined for 25 ground balls—mostly on face-offs—with McNeany nabbing 13 and Dobrzynski 12. Trevor Koppy made seven saves in 20 minutes to earn the win for the Beacons in goal.
UMass Boston led 9-0 in the second quarter when Castleton broke into the scoring column, as Sarro found the back of the cage for a goal. After two more UMass Boston goals, Frankenhoff netted his first of three to make it 11-2 with 8:38 to play in the first half. LaBonte got on the board with 1:24 to play in the second quarter but a late goal by UMass Boston made it 15-3 at halftime.
The Beacons scored eight unanswered goals out of the halftime break, pushing the lead to 23-3, before Frankenhoff found twine for his second score of the evening. The Beacons led 25-4 after three quarters.
LaBonte and Briggs scored back-to-back to start the fourth quarter, and Rider and Frankenhoff closed the scoring as the Spartans outgunned the Beacons 4-3 over the final 15 minutes to give the game its 28-8 final score.
Castleton wraps up the regular season on Friday when it hosts Mass. Maritime at 7 p.m. The Spartans' seniors will be honored prior to the contest.
