BROOKVILLE, N.Y. – The LIU men's lacrosse team improved to 5-1 in the Northeast Conference Saturday afternoon, beating Mount St. Mary's in Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium, 17-15.
Richie LaCalandra and
Jake Gillis combined for 10 of LIU's 17 goals.
The Mount came out firing, scoring the first goal of the day just a minute and a half into the game. After
Dylan Villari would get LIU's first goal, the visitors scored two quick goals to go up, 3-1, and put the Sharks on their heels.
Alex Russell would score an unassisted goal at 6:42, but the Mount answered 20 seconds later with another goal to make it 4-2. With three minutes lef tin the first,
Jake Gillis would off a pass from
Blake Behlen, to cut the lead down to 4-3. Mount would score again to make it 5-2, but then
Richie LaCalandra went to work.
The freshman would score a goal with 46 seconds left in the first quarter, and added another at the start of the second to tie it up, 5-5. Though Mount would add one more, LaCalandra then scored two back-to-back goals in less than two minutes, including one where he forced a turnover on Mount's goalie to score, putting LIU up, 7-6. The Mountaineers would score the next three goals, and led, 9-8 at the halftime break.
In the third, the visiting team would build the lead to 13-10, before LIU turned up the head.
Jake Gillis would score back-to-back goals from LaCalandra, and then
Nick Grassa would tie it up, 13-13.
Blake Behlen scored the go-ahead goal at the end of the third period, and started the fourth with a goal off a pass from LaCalandra to maek it 15-13. Gillis and Villari would each add one more to build LIU's lead to 17-13.
Mount added two goals before the end of the day, but couldn't make up the difference, and the Sharks took the win, 17-15.
SHARK BITES
