Posted: Mar 24, 2010
BEVERLY, Mass. – After falling into a quick 1-0 hole just 3:06 into the first quarter, Gordon College responded by rattling off six unanswered goals en route to a 7-5 The Commonwealth Coast Conference men’s lacrosse win over host Endicott on Wednesday evening in Beverly, Mass. The win was the Fighting Scots first against the Gulls in their last 11 outings.
Endicott (2-4, 2-1 TCCC) opened the night by snatching a one-goal lead just 3:06 into the contest as \#Brian Vincent\# (Norwalk, Conn.) stuck a shot under the crossbar from the top of the crease. The goal would be Endicott’s only tally of the opening half, as Gordon (3-3, 1-1 TCCC) went on a 6-0 run to coast into the intermission with a 6-1 lead.
Six different players scored goals during the Scots’ 6-0 burst, including a nifty transition strike by Dan Castelline (Concord, Mass.) off a backdoor feed from Joel Derechinsky (Annapolis, Md.). Gordon goalkeeper Houston Zemanski (Annapolis, Md.), who was stellar on the evening, kept the Gulls off the scoreboard with a brilliant cross-crease save in the closing moments of the first quarter.
Endicott fired back in the second half when \#Chris Cotter\# (Fairfield, Conn.) opened the third stanza with a short-side bounce shot that beat Zemanski to cut the lead to 6-2. The visitors countered with a dodge from behind the cage by Derechinsky, who turned his man and beat netminder \#Eric Hagarty\# (Sudbury, Mass.) upstairs to push the lead back to five.
A late Endicott surge in the fourth quarter proved too little too late, as goals from \#Brad Lipkvich\# (Madison, Conn.), \#Jon Thanas\# (Cumberland, R.I.) and Jack Curtis (Chelmsford, Mass.) were only able to bring the Gulls within two, 7-5. Multiple shots in the final minute either missed their mark or were turned away by Zemanski, pushing Gordon to the TCCC win.
Endicott held a 34-24 shots advantage and hauled four more groundballs than the Fighting Scots (32-28). The difference came at the face-off X where Gordon went 10-of-16 compared to the Gulls’ 6-for-16 effort. Zemanski also out-dueled his All-American counterpart \#Eric Hagarty\#, making 15 saves to the Endicott senior’s seven.
Prior to Wednesday’s game, Endicott was a perfect 10-0 against Gordon dating back to 2004 and had outscored the Fighting Scots at a 140-65 clip over the stretch.
Endicott returns to action on Saturday afternoon when the Gulls travel to Bristol, R.I. to meet the Hawks of Roger Williams University for a 3:30 tilt. Gordon looks for its third straight win when it takes on Salve Regina on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
