Saturday, March 9, 2013 (Newton, Massachusetts) - The Mount Ida College men's lacrosse team dropped their second straight non-league bid versus the Corsairs of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, falling by a score of 11-9 Saturday afternoon on Alumni Field. The Mustangs fell behind 3-0 in the early going before junior attacker Kyle Cordaro (Worcester, MA/Hebron Academy) scored just as the first quarter came to an end. Mount Ida had trouble controlling the ball as they coughed up 36 turnovers going 18-30 clearing the ball out of the defensive zone.
The Mustangs fall to an overall record of 1-3 while the Corsairs improve to 3-0 on the young season. Neither team has yet to compete in a conference game.
Mount Ida was led offensively by senior midfielder Nick Yacuzzi (Oakham, MA/St. John's Shrewsbury) with three goals in the contest. Freshman attacker Phil Pichel (Hopkinton, Massachusetts/Hopkinton) picked up right where he left off last game tallying two more goals to improve his season total to fourteen while Cordaro recorded one more goal before the end of regulation for his second of the season.
The Corsairs were led by sophomore attacker Connor Gaffney (Andover, MA/Andover) who tallied three goals on the day off seven shots. Nicklaus Prozinski (Ashland, MA/Ashland) scored twice for the visitors while the remaining scores were recorded by Dennis Healy (Hanover, MA/Hanover), Tyler Chasnov (Plymouth, MA/Plymouth North), who also tallied two assists, Alex Lucas (Brookfield, MA/Tantasqua), Todd Davis (East Sandwich, MA/Sandwich) and Jordan MacPherson (Westwood, MA/Westwood).
The opening quarter saw the visitors put three goals on the board before the Mustangs retaliated with three scores of their own by Cordaro, Pichel and senior midfielder Jake Davis (Chester, NH/Pinkerton Academy). Moments later UMASS-Dartmouth returned the favor and scored the next three goals by Gaffney, Lucas, and Healy taking the game into halftime with the Corsairs on top 6-3.
The Corsairs opened up the second half strong tallying three straight goals by Davis, Baxter, and Prozinski while taking a commanding 9-3 lead. Yacuzzi would chip away at the visitor's advantage by tallying a score at the 7:20 mark, cutting the lead to 9-5. Pichel would score the next goal for the Mustangs pulling within four by a score of 9-5, only before Prozinksi would add another goal in his stellar performance pushing the lead to 10-5 in favor of the Corsairs.
Mount Ida would open the fourth quarter with scores by Yacuzzi and Cordaro cutting down the lead to 10-7. Chasnov would tally the next goal for the visitors adding to the lead making it 11-7. However, the hosts would not go away easily. Yacuzzi struck again for his third goal of the game with 3:24 left in the game and less than a minute later, junior midfielder JT Hoyt (Westfield, MA/Westfield) would tally his only score of the game making things interesting and the visitors lead at 11-9. The next two minutes would go quickly, as the visitors held off the Mustangs late rally and grabbed the 11-9 victory.
Mount Ida goalkeeper Craig Bray (New Cannan, CT/Vermont Academy) saw all the minutes for the Mustangs while making 24 saves on 35 shots. Nick Thayer (Chelmsford, MA/Chelmsford) saw all 60 minutes for the Corsairs making six saves on 15 shots.
The hosts will hit the road on Wednesday, March 13th and visit the Vikings of Salem State University with game time slated for 4:00 PM. UMass-Dartmouth will continue their road trip on the 13th as well and visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with faceoff at 4:00 PM.