Box Score THE BASICS
-Score: MIT 13, Clark University 10
-Records: Clark (10-7, NEWMAC 5-2), MIT (10-7, NEWMAC 5-2)
-Location: Worcester, Mass. (Granger Field)
-The Lead: The Clark University men's lacrosse team fell to the Engineers of MIT in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference match-up at Granger Field on Saturday night. The two teams wrapped up their regular seasons with 10-7 overall records and 5-3 records in the conference. Clark will head to Babson College for the NEWMAC quarterfinal game on Tuesday, April 30th.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-MIT outscored the Cougars 4-2 in the first quarter pulling ahead 4-0 with just 50 seconds on the clock. Clark put up two unassisted goals under the one minute mark from senior Sam Wogan (Freeport, Maine) and sophomore Jacob Brandes (Chappaqua, N.Y.) to pull within two (4-2).
-Junior Bobby Philbin (Ridgefield, Conn.) won the face-off for Clark to kick off the second quarter and his classmate Owen Lamerson (Greenlawn, N.Y.) dished him back the ball for their third straight goal to pull within one at the 14:32 mark (4-3). The Engineers rallied for four unanswered goals, including two from sophomore Mark Heatzig (Boca Raton, Fla.), to claim an 8-3 advantage heading into the halftime break.
-The Cougars outscored the Engineers 4-2 in the third stanza with a pair of goals from senior Brandon King (Eastham, Mass.) to pull within three heading into the final 15 minutes.
-Junior Chris Rasco (Huntington, N.Y.) scored all three of Clark's goals in the final stanza, but MIT matched them with goals from junior Aidan Westley (Palos Verdes, Calif.), senior Jake Stein (Vienna, Va.), and sophomore Oliver Heins (Fair Haven, N.J.) to clinch the 13-10 final victory.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
-Rasco led the Cougars with four goals while Lamerson added a team-high three assists.
-Philbin finished 10-for-15 in face-offs with a team-high eight ground balls. Senior Stuart Bleck (Southboro, Mass.) earned two caused turnovers as the Cougars finished with seven total caused turnovers.
-Sophomore Gavin Vandenberg (Elmhurst, Ill.) led MIT offensively with five points from three goals and two assists in the victory. Sophomore Luke Gianni (Henderson, Nev.) went 10-for-27 in face-offs for the Engineers and collected a team-high five ground balls.
-Senior Nathan Maselek (Marblehead, Mass.) made 19 saves in net for the Cougars and falls to 9-6 on the season.
-First year goalkeeper, Lukas Drexler-Bruce (Denver, Colo.) improves to 8-5 overall with his 10 saves in net for MIT.
UP NEXT
-Clark advances to the NEWMAC tournament with a first round game vs Babson on Tuesday, April 30th at Clark at 7 pm
-Springfield will host MIT in the semifinal round of the NEWMAC Championship on Thursday, May 2nd.
