Behind a four goal performance from junior Matthew Savage (Peabody, MA/Peabody), the Mount Ida College men’s lacrosse team rounded out their regular season with a 17-3 romping over visiting Husson University Sunday afternoon on senior day to seal their perfect 9-0 regular season bid and the number one seed in the conference tournament with home field advantage starting May 1. The Mustangs improve to 10-6 overall and remain perfect at 9-0 while the third seeded Eagles fall to 9-7, 7-2 in league play.
The Mustangs had a shutout pitched through two quarters and exactly 35:07 of play scoring 13 consecutive goals. Junior Paul Battapaglia (Clinton, CT/Morgan) started the charge for the hosts with the first three goals of the game, two on man-up opportunities, with two assists from freshman Nick Yacuzzi (Oakham, MA/St. John’s) and another from sophomore Derek O’Reilly (East Setauket, NY/Ward Melville) for the 3-0 lead.
Six more goals ensued for the Mustangs, three from Savage, two by junior Dan Harrington (Westford, MA/Westford Academy), and one from junior captain Derek Broughton (Peabody, MA/Peabody) leading 9-0 with five minutes to go in the first half.
Yacuzzi and senior Michael Simone (Dover, NH/St. Thomas Aquinas) finished off the half with a score apiece, both unassisted, leading 11-0 heading into the locker room at the break.
Mount Ida started the second half with two goals, another from Savage for his fourth of the game on a dish from senior Dan Kelley (Bethany, CT/Amity Regional), and one goal from Yacuzzi giving Mount Ida the 13-0 blanking with 7:28 to go in the third quarter.
Husson finally got on the board off an unassisted goal from sophomore Ben Landry (Lewiston, ME/Lewiston) to stop the bleeding for the Eagles trailing 13-1.
Two more goals ensued for Mount Ida from Broughton and senior Chris Prophete’s (Waltham, MA/Waltham) first goal of the game up 15-1 with 11:09 to go in the final frame.
Husson freshman Mitch Heaps (York, PA/Red Lion) notched the Eagles second goal of the contest off a feed from sophomore Anthony Diaz (Brunswick, ME/Brunswick) still trailing 15-2. Mount Ida answered with a score from freshman Eric Parhiala (Derry, NH/Pinkerton Academy) from senior Brandon Keith (Barnstable, MA/Barnstable) leading 16-1.
Landry notched their third and final goal immediately following for the Eagles that was answered by Mount Ida on senior Matt Vernik’s (Bethany, CT/Amity) first goal of the game sealing the 17-3 NAC victory.
Vernik was disgustingly good in the face-off circle going 20-21 with 19 groundballs and a goal. The Mount Ida defense was devastating led by senior’s Kevin Mulvey (Peabody, MA/Peabody), Bryan Seaman (Peabody, MA/Peabody), Dan Kelley (Bethany, CT/Amity Regional) and sophomore long pole Carl Grimo (Bristol, RI/LaSalle Academy) only surrendering three scores with a shutout pitched for almost three quarters.
Mount Ida College netminder Jimmy McAllister (Smithfield, RI/LaSalle Academy) was also outstanding with seven saves. Eagles starting goaltender Tyler Quinn (McLean, VA/McLean) saw the first half blocking 12 Mount Ida shots while freshman Alex Behzad (Stamford, CT/West Hill) got second half duties with seven saves.
The Mustangs will have home field advantage throughout the play-offs starting May 1, 2010 with their opponent and time of game TBA right now. Check www.mountidamustangs.com for more information throughout the week.