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JU Men’s lacrosse wins first-ever conference game with victory over Griffins

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
Dolphins improve to 1-0 in MAAC play BUFFALO, N.Y.- A season-long goal for the JU men’s lacrosse team was to play up to its potential by the time conference play started. The Dolphins achieved its objective in putting together one of the most complete games of its campaign with a 12-8 victory over Canisius on Saturday at the Demske Sports Complex. Nine of the Dolphins total goals came from reserves as the substitutes moved JU to 3-5 overall and 1-0 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Play. Canisius fell to 0-5 and 0-1. TJ Kenary tallied a season-best four goals and an assist for a game-high five points and fellow sophomore Cameron Mann notched his first hat trick of the season to snap JU’s three-game losing streak and propel the Dolphins to the first conference win in program history. JU played its inaugural 2010 season as an independent before joining the MAAC this year. “I’m pleased with the effort from our entire team and happy to start conference play off strongly,” JU head coach Matt Kerwick said. “TJ and Cam are two players we look to for leadership and we’re looking to forward to building off this game as we as we continue to face our challenging MAAC schedule.” Canisius’ Simon Giourmetakis scored four of the Griffins eight goals and added an assist for a five-point afternoon in Buffalo, N.Y. The venue will also be the site of the MAAC Tournament in May. Five JU players registered multi-point games. Max Gurowski continued to be an assist virtuoso, feeding John Linnan and Kenary for goals to bring his Dolphins-leading assist total to 14 through his first eight games. Linnan capitalized on Gurowski’s crisp pass to score his first goal of the season just 54 seconds in. Freshman Kyle Rebman netted his fifth goal almost 10 minutes later to send the Dolphins into the second quarter with a 2-0 edge. The Dolphins led by as much as 4-1 before the Griffins rallied to tie it at 5 with 10:31 left in the third quarter off Giourmetakis’s third goal of the contest. But JU closed the contest on a 7-3 run. After Giourmetakis’ equalizer, the Dolphins scored four goals in a 7:52 span to close out the third quarter. Mann took Rebman’s feed and fired a shot past Canisius goalie Sean Callahan for a lead the Dolphins would not relinquish with 7:59 left in the third. Just 1:14 later, Robert Moore collected his seventh goal on an unassisted strike. Kenary and Mann added goals just 1:16 apart for a 9-5 lead. Mann scored on all three of his shots. The sophomore midfielder played as a reserve for the first time in his collegiate career after starting all 13 games as a freshman and the first seven games this season. Canisius’ Tom Vivan looked to give the Griffins some momentum when he scored with 17 seconds left in the third. But William Vogt, who won 13-of-23 faceoffs overall, beat William Caldiero off the draw to set up Kenary’s strike with seven seconds left for a 10-6 lead enter the final 15 minutes. Kenary and Jeremy Tissenbaum scored the only goals for JU in the final quarter to provide cushion for freshman goalie Peter DeLuca, who made 10 saves to improve his individual record to 3-5. After playing five of its last six games on the road, the Dolphins will return to Florida to host Detroit Mercy in a MAAC matchup on Saturday, March 26 at D.B. Milne Field. Game time is set for 1 p.m.

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