PROVIDENCE, RI – The Mount Ida College men's lacrosse team will not make a return trip to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship game, as an early deficit was too much for the Mustangs to overcome in a 14-9 loss at Johnson & Wales University in the quarterfinals on Wednesday afternoon.
The fifth seeded Mustangs (9-9) end their year in the quarterfinal round for the second time in the last three years, while Johnson & Wales improve to 10-8 overall and earn their first postseason win in program history.
Senior Lucas Stralka (E. Greenwich, R.I.) scored two goals and added two assists to finish his Mount Ida career with a conference leading 49 goals and 72 points on the season. Wyatt Sullivan (Arlington, Mass.) scored four goals, but the Mustangs were outscored 6-3 in the first quarter and 5-1 in the second quarter to fall into an insurmountable halftime deficit.
Da'zhon Johnston (Southampton, Bermuda) scored a pair of goals for Mount Ida and Chad Coehlo (Salem, Mass.) extended his team lead to 33 with two assists, while sophomore goalie Cam Hayward (Derry, N.H.) made 17 saves, despite a slim 39-38 edge in shots for his team.
Six different Wildcats found the back of the net in the first quarter with Sam Sears' (Baltimore, Md.) goal capping the scoring on a man-up goal with just 24 second left in the period. Sears had his second-multi goal game in a row and has scored 21 of his 38 points in the last eight games.
Sullivan scored twice in the first period, and then pulled the Mustangs within two at 6-4 with a goal at the 6:30 mark of the second quarter, but sophomore attacker Max Stone (Burlington, Conn.) scored all four of his goals in the final 6:22 as part of a 5-0 JWU run.
Stone was one of five Wildcats to score two or more goals. Freshmen Erik Lindaas (Milford, Pa.) and Ben Farrell (Dowingtown, Pa.) as well as Sears and sophomore Anthony DeMarche (East Longmeadow, Mass.) found the back of the net twice. For DeMarche it was his first multi-goal game of the season and the first since he tallied two goals versus Anna Maria last year.
Johnson & Wales had a 42-27 advantage in ground balls and Hunter Guzzo (Wantage, NJ) won 18-of-25 face offs. Goalkeeper JC Guido (Miller Place, NY) made 16 saves, just one off his season-high.
Mount Ida was led by five ground balls apiece from Alex Veloukas (Salem, Mass.) and Alex Zito (Andover, Conn.), who won just four of the sixteen draws he took against Guzzo.
The fourth seeded Wildcats will travel to Boston on Friday evening for a semifinal contest against the top seeded Emmanuel Saints.