CLEARWATER, Fla. – The Clark University men's lacrosse team took a non-conference setback on Saturday afternoon as a game-high six assists and two goals from Ian Evans piloted No. 13 St. John's Fisher to an 18-12 decision at Phillip Jones Stadium.  

The Basics

Score: Cardinals 18, Cougars 12

Records: Clark University (0-4) | St. John Fisher (3-1)

How it Happened

Clark was led by its captains as Chris Rasco (Huntington, N.Y.) and Bobby Philbin (Ridgefield, Conn.) each tallied a pair of markers while Andrew Hollerbach (West Hartford, Conn.) dished out two assists to go with a goal of his own.

First-year Declan Fitzpatrick (Lunenburg, Mass.) notched his first collegiate goal while sophomore netminder Ryan Mickelson (Mattawan, Mich.) also recorded his first offensive stat, scoring an unassisted goal in the third quarter.

For the Cardinals, Nicholas Miller registered four goals while Jordan Depetres and Jack Mulvihill each added a hat-trick to lead eight different goal-scorers for the visitors.

The teams came out firing right from the start with the Cougars grabbing the first two goals of the contest on shots from Jacob Brandes (Chappaqua, N.Y.) and Graham Van (Ponte Verde, Fla.) with 12:54 and 11:56 timestamps respectively. After the first of the game from Depetres made it a 2-1 score, Philbin upped the ante with his first of the contest with 10:35 left in the period.

St. John's Fisher found a groove quickly after to take a 5-4 lead by the end of the quarter with a marker from Hollerbach breaking up four goals from the Cardinals over the final ten minutes of action.

With a 6-4 deficit in the second quarter, the Cougars pulled even as Rasco broke through for two unanswered goals with Jack Mandracchia (Melrose, Mass.) providing the feed on both occasions. St. John Fisher took control heading into the halftime break as goals from Miller and Evans bookended the first marker of the game from Benjamin Hollerbach (West Hartford, Conn.).

The Cardinals came out strong to start the second half to take control in the contest, scoring five of the first six goals in the quarter for a 13-8 lead with junior Dan Turgeon (Holden, Mass.) disrupting the run at the 11:53 mark with his first goal of the season.

Clark closed the gap in the third as a man-up goal from Owen Lamerson (Greenlawn, N.Y.) at the 6:47 mark sparking a 3-2 advantage for the Cougars. The stretch included
a pair of career-firsts as Mickelson and Fitzpatrick capped the scoring in the third at the 3:37 and 1:10 minute marks respectively to make it a 15-11 deficit.

The Cougars began the scoring in the fourth quarter with Philbin making good use of a feed from Lamerson just 36 seconds into the stanza. The play momentarily swung momentum before Mulvihill notched a man-up chance for the first of three unanswered goals for the Cardinals to provide the 18-12 final score.

Despite his solid play, Mickelson took his fourth loss of the year in net as the sophomore turned aside 14 of the 18 shots faced in the contest. Across the field, Darin Eakins stopped seven shots in a complete-game victory between the pipes.

Up Next

The Cougars return home from spring break and jump back into action in New England when they travel to Trinity for a 7:00 PM tilt on March 11.