Mount Ida College men's lacrosse senior Paul Battipaglia (Clinton, CT/Morgan) and sophomore Nick Yacuzzi (Worcester, MA/St. John's-Shrewsbury) tallied three goals each en route to a 20-3 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) victory over visiting Daniel Webster College Saturday afternoon in Newton, Massachusetts. The Mustangs, who capture their third league win for the season with a perfect 3-0 GNAC slate, improve to an overall record of 4-7. The Eagles drop their first conference bid of the year falling to 1-1 in the GNAC standings and an overall record of 3-2.
The Mustangs came out of the gate firing hard chalking up their first goal within the opening two minutes on Battapaglia's first goal of the game on a dish from senior captain Derek Broughton (Peabody, MA/Peabody) for the early 1-0 advantage.
The visitors answered with two straight goals starting with an unassisted score from sophomore Kieran Kavanaugh (East Lyme, CT/East Lyme). Junior Alex McKenzie (Nashua, NH/Nashua South) followed less than a minute later on a dish from Kavanaugh for their only lead of the contest at 2-1.
Four goals by the hosts ensued on unassisted scores from Yacuzzi and freshman Zach Rosen (East Greenwich, RI/St. Andrew's School) to regain the lead for the Mustangs up 3-2 with less than four ticks to go in the first quarter.
Two more were added before the end of the frame starting with a man down score from freshman David Greenleaf (Gloucester, MA/Gloucester) off a feed from sophomore Nick Maurais (Peabody, MA/Peabody) up 4-2. Sophomore Mike Durand (Londonderry, NH/Londonderry) added another on a dish from Rosen to finish the quarter leading 5-2.
Quarter number two started with three Mount Ida tallies with the first bid coming from the stick of senior Matt Savage (Peabody, MA/Peabody) putting the Mustangs ahead 6-2. Two more goals followed from Battapaglia, both on feeds from Broughton, leading 8-2 midway through the second stanza.
The Eagles tallied their third and final goal of the contest with eight minutes to go before halftime on Kavanaugh's second tally of the game trialing 8-3.
It was all Mount Ida from this point notching the next 12 goals putting on an offensive barrage to finish off the 20-3 GNAC win. Junior's Ian Saunders (Glens Falls, NY/Glens Falls), Cody Collard (North Haven, CT/North Haven), and Billy Gerke (Essex, VT/Rice Memorial), sophomore's Jake Davis (Chester, NH/Pinkerton Academy) and Ryan Tirelli (Yorktown, NY/Yorktown), freshman Zach Davis (Old Lyme, CT/Xavier), Rosen, and Greenleaf all got in on the scoring during the 12-0 run. Gerke and Collard notched two goals a piece through the stretch with everyone else tallying one a piece.
Rosen, Greenleaf, Collard, and Gerke all added two goals each while Broughton dished out four assists. Freshman Kyle Danehy (Marlborough, MA/Marlborough) was given the nod to command the middle circle today going 11-17 in face-offs with six groundballs and two assists.
Mount Ida led in every major statistical category almost doubling the Eagles amount in groundballs at 60-35. The Mustangs took a season high 66 shots and converted 23 of 28 clears for the game.
Four goaltenders saw time for Mount Ida with junior Craig Naftal (Bellmore, NY/JFK) getting the start notching one save. Freshman Craig Bray (New Canaan, CT/Vermont Academy) saw the second quarter also adding one stop. Sophomore Chandler Webb (Newton, MA/Bishop Hendriken (RI)) denied two Eagle shots in the third quarter and freshman Anthony Genualdo (Peabody, MA/Peabody) had the most turning away four.
Eagle netminder freshman Nate Burr (Southbury, CT/Pomperaug) saw all 60 minutes between the pipes notching 10 saves.
The Mustangs are back in GNAC action Tuesday evening against visiting Norwich University with game time slated for 4:00 p.m.