BEVERLY, Mass. – Sophomore attacker Kyle Weber (West Hartford, Conn.) matched a program record for most goals in a single game by scoring eight in a 16-12 Endicott men's lacrosse victory over Eastern Connecticut on Monday night at Endicott Stadium.
Weber's offensive outburst more than doubled his season total and tied former Endicott great Josh Gilbert's ('07) output of eight goals against Salve Regina back on April 28th, 2007. Weber now has a team-high 13 goals on the season for an Endicott squad that has won their last three games after dropping their season opener. The Gulls are 3-1 (1-0 CCC) and will next travel to Rochester, New York for the Flower City Cup on March 15th-17th where they take on St. John Fisher and RIT.
Despite a six-point night Warriors junior midfielder Mike Devine (Cheshire, Conn.), Eastern Connecticut dropped to 1-3 on the season. Devine scored twice and assisted on four more goals as he increased his team-high point total to 18 on the season. Eastern Connecticut will visit Amherst on Wednesday, March 13th at 4:30 pm.
Weber's big night came off three unassisted goals with another five coming from the sticks of sophomores Harrison Cotter (Lordship, Conn.) and Joshua Tordik (Sayville, N.Y.) as well as junior defender Lucas Paratore (Wenham, Mass.). Cotter and Tordik each finished with three assists in the game with Tordik adding a highlight reel goal early in the fourth quarter. Weber's eighth and final goal with 2:19 remaining in the third quarter proved to be the game-winning as it pushed Endicott ahead 13-7.
The Gulls rushed out to an early 5-1 lead by the end of the first quarter with Weber scoring twice with Sam Ozycz (Cheshire, Conn.), Chris Murphy (Holden, Mass.), and Kyle Burke (Haverhill, Mass.) each finding the back of the net. Ozycz and Murphy would both later score goals in the second and fourth quarters, respectively.
Devine accounted for Eastern Connecticut's lone goal of the opening period, but the Warriors got their offense going in the second as back-to-back tallies by sophomore attacker Chris Barnett (Wilton, Conn.) and junior attack Mike Jordan (Cheshire, Conn.) pulled the visitors to within four at 9-5 at halftime.
Weber took over in the third quarter, scoring all four of Endicott's goals as the Blue and Green outscored Eastern Connecticut 4-2 to take a 13-7 advantage. Goals by Jordan and Trevor Morrissette (Bedford, N.H.) kept the Warriors in the game in the third quarter.
Eastern Connecticut made one last push over the final 15 minutes of the game by scoring five times. Trailing by just three with 4:07 remaining, an empty netter goal by Gulls defender Anthony Martignetti (Winchester, Mass.) and a hard-fought unassisted tally by Murphy gave Endicott some breathing room as they went on to win 16-12.
Endicott caused 12 turnovers including two apiece by defenders Martignetti and Ryan Sutherland (Sudbury, Mass.). Sutherland's caused turnover early in the second quarter led directly to a goal down the other end by Weber just eight seconds later at the 12:01 mark to make it 6-1 Endicott. The Gulls also controlled the face-off for a majority of the game as Ozycz went 19-for-30 on the draw with 12 groundballs.
Eastern Connecticut saw junior defender Chris Brown (Cohasset, Mass.) and sophomore defender Travis Tiger (Ridgefield, Conn.) both total a game-high three caused turnovers. Tiger, Brown, as well as face-off man Josh Dubinsky (Woodstock, Conn.) all scooped five groundballs.
