Box Score
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- At a rain-soaked and fog-covered Hameline Field at Wagner College Stadium, the Virginia Military Institute men's lacrosse team dropped a back-and-forth game with Wagner College 18-12 Tuesday afternoon.
Despite VMI's highest offensive output of the 2013 season, complemented by three players with multiple goals, the Keydets could not hold off a late Seahawk run.
VMI was led by Russell East, who ran up a career-high four goals along with one assist. Sophomore Anthony Mordaga, making his first career start, was the Keydets' leading assister with three, while also chipping in a goal.
Freshmen Dan Bull and Alex Henthorn each scored two goals as fellow freshman Gage Snowbarger tagged a man-up goal. Bernie Mowbray and Luke Frizzell each scored once.
"There were a lot of good things coming out of the offensive end today," noted VMI head coach Brian Anken. "We spent a lot of our time working on our shots and our shot production. We expect some of the changes we made both systematically and personnel-wise to help us shoot the ball between 45 and 55 times."
The Keydets took a season-high 53 shots, outshooting the Seahawks by 20. VMI put nearly half of those attempts on goal. Wagner held the advantage in groundballs 34-28.
Opposite the Keydets, Cory Santor led the game with eight points on five goals and three assists. Griffen LeClaire and David DeCirce each scored four goals and had one assist each for five points apiece. Colin O'Rourke was another four-goal scorer for Wagner, while Paul Devita accounted for the final tally.
Wagner's Brian Faughnan had a game-high four assists as Nick DePhillips chipped in a pair of helpers.
"Giving up 18 goals a game...we're going to have a tough time winning any games giving up that many," said Anken. "They capitalized on our mistakes and I think we game them too many offensive opportunities.
In goal, Matt Lindemann suffered the loss for the Keydets, despite 10 saves for his fifth double-digit save effort of the season. Vision was difficult throughout the game as heavy fog rolled in off the Narrows. Wagner got 11 saves from its starting keeper, Nicholas Gibaldi.
In the faceoff department, VMI won 15 of the game's 34 draws. But the big story at the X was from Frizzell, VMI's first-ever lacrosse player from the state of Oklahoma. Frizzell took 27 of the draws for the Keydets, winning 13 of those attempts and grabbing two groundballs along the way.
"Luke stepped up for us today," said Anken of the sophomore Frizzell. "Gaston(Ledford) was struggling early on and we (the staff) had a conversation with Gaston and I think Luke did what we expected him to do."
VMI scored the first goal of the game as East logged his first with 11:57 left in the first quarter. Mordaga was on the backend with his first career assist. But the Seahawks answered back with four straight goals to take a 4-1 lead late in the first quarter. Snowbarger snapped the run with his first tally for the Red and Gold. The Seahawks struck once more in the first, taking a 5-2 advantage into the next period.
The Keydets pulled back within one goal of the Seahawks after Bull scored his first, followed by East just 50 seconds later. Mordaga was credited with the assist on East's goal. Santor scored once for the Seahawks to regain a two-goal lead, but Henthorn shot right back to make it 6-5 on another Mordaga assist.
Wagner (1-5) stung back-to-back goals to remount a three-goal advantage, 8-5. Once again, Henthorn had the final say as he scored his second to make it 8-6 Wagner at halftime.
VMI pulled within one as East snapped home his third goal of the day and cutting into Wagner's 8-7 lead. The Seahawks scored another pair of markers to go up 10-7, but VMI rallied back to tie the game on three unanswered goals from Bull, East and Mordaga. Bull and Mordaga's goals came on the extra man, helping VMI score three times on five man-up chances.
Wagner took the advantage again however, this time 12-10, as Santor and Griffen LeClaire scored once each. However, VMI got a last minute goal from Mowbray, who found the back of the net with just 13 seconds left in the third quarter. The Seahawks were up just 12-11 at that juncture.
The Seahawks opened the final quarter with four unanswered goals from four different players to push the advantage to 16-11. Just 10 seconds after Wagner's fourth goal of the run, Frizzell tucked home his first career goal after he won the faceoff and ran straight down the middle of the Wagner defense.
That would be VMI's final goal of the day however, as Wagner scored twice more for the 18-12 win.
After playing the first six games of the season on the road, VMI will finally play in Lexington, Va. The Keydets will open Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play Saturday as they host the Golden Griffins of Canisius College at 1 p.m. Saturday's game will be played at Drill Field #2, located on North Post at the Institute.
