Dominant Second Half Carries QU Men's Lacrosse Past Siena 11-6 In MAAC Opener

Saturday, March 26

Hamden, CT

12:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

4-3, 1-0MAAC

Siena College

1-6, 0-2MAAC

Siena

Quinnipiac

Dominant Second Half Carries QU Men's Lacrosse Past Siena 11-6 In MAAC Opener

3/26/2016 2:24:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

By: QU Sports Information

HAMDEN, Conn. - The Quinnipiac men's lacrosse team used a 7-0 run in the second half to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 10-5 lead and went on to capture an 11-6 win over Siena in its Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opener on Saturday afternoon at QU Lacrosse Turf Complex.

With the win, the Bobcats are now 4-3 on the year and 1-0 in league play, while Siena sees its record drop to 1-6 overall and 0-2 in the MAAC after falling last week at home to Canisius.

Senior attack Ryan Keenan (Oshawa, Ontario) finished with two goals and three assists on the day, giving him 98 career points, two shy of becoming the 12th player in school history with 100 career points. Sophomore attack Brian Feldman (Canandaigua, N.Y.) had three goals for his fourth hat trick of the season, and senior midfielder Connor Meth (Basking Ridge, N.J.) had two goals and an assist. Junior goalie Jack Brust (Baltimore, Md.) had a dominant day in net, recording 14 saves, while sophomore midfielder Will Vitelli (Milford, Conn. - pictured) had a dominant day on faceoffs, winning 16 of 21, including 9 of 9 in the first half.

Siena, though, had the 4-3 lead at the half behind a hat trick from Kevin Cousin, and then tacked on the first goal of the second half when Tim Cousin scored at the 12:12 mark. The Bobcats, though, were able to regroup as Keenan assisted on back-to-back goals, the first coming on an extra-man opportunity when he found sophomore attack James Byrns (Massapequa, N.Y.) and the second coming when he found Feldman with 8:36 left in the third to knot the score up 5-5.

Meth then provided a momentum-swinging goal as he converted a man-down goal with 7"43 to go in the third to give the Bobcats their first lead of the second half. Meth then tallied another unassisted goal with 1:27 left in the third, and Keenan capped off the quarter with a goal moving right to left across the front of the cage with 3.8 seconds left to give Quinnipiac an 8-5 lead going into the fourth.

The Bobcats kept the momentum going in the final quarter, as Feldman scored his second goal when he bounced in a long-range shot off a feed from Meth at the 11:45 mark. Sophomore midfielder Kevin Diehl (Towson, Md.) capped off the 7-0 run with 8:14 left in the contest off a feed from junior attack Drew D'Antonio (Norwalk, Conn.). Chris Robertson ended the long drought for the Saints with a goal with 6:33 to go to close the lead to 10-6, but Brust came up with two key saves to stop any Siena momentum, and Feldman finished off his hat trick with 2:09 left to close out the scoring off another feed from Keenan.

Freshman Foster Cuomo (Oakville, Ont.) gave Quinnipiac a 2-1 lead early in the second quarter, but Kevin Cousin had back-to-back goals 1:31 apart to give the Saints their first lead at 3-2 with 6:49 left in the half. Brian Prunty added another with 2:03 left in the half, but Diehl answered with 1:15 remaining to close to 4-3 at the break.

Vitelli had a team-high five ground balls to go with his 16-21 mark on faceoffs, while Brust, sophomore midfielder Alex DiSalvo (Smithtown, N.Y.) and sophomore defenseman Adam Bellamy (St. Catherine, Ontario) each had four ground balls. Siena finished with a narrow 38-34 edge in shots on the day, while the Bobcats held a 28-19 edge in ground balls.

Quinnipiac will be back in action on Saturday when it travels to Marist for a rematch of last year's MAAC Championship game in Poughkeepsie, with the Red Foxes won 16-14.