PACE HOLDS OFF LATE ST. LEO RALLY TO PICK UP FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON
ST. LEO, FL- The Pace men's lacrosse team held off a fourth quarter rally by St. Leo to pick up their first win of the season, defeating the Lions 9-8 in non-conference action. The Setters improve to 1-2 on the season, while St. Leo drops to 4-3.
St. Leo struck first, scoring the first three goals of the game, taking an early lead late into the opening quarter. Pace rallied, netting six unanswered goals as Joseph Clark (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton) and Ryan Gregory (Bethpage, NY/Bethpage) scored a pair of goals, while T.J. Urban (Kinnelon, NJ/Kinnelon) tallied a man-up score to give the Setters a 6-3 lead early in the third quarter.
The Setters and Lions would trade goals the rest of the quarter and a goal by Michael Mezzo (East Brunswick, NJ/East Brunswick) early in the fourth quarter gave Pace an 8-4 lead with 11:59 left in the game. St. Leo would slice the lead to three as Tommy Bryant scored 48 seconds later. James Hammel (North Caldwell, NJ/West Essex) would make it a four goal game with a score with 8:50 remaining in the game, which would prove to be the game-winner. St. Leo would rally with three unanswered goals, trimming the Setters advantage to one at 9-8 with 2:44 left in the game. The Lions has three shots on goals in the final 90 seconds of the game, one shot went wide and two clutch saves by Setters goalie Timothy Matheis (Lindenhurst, NY/Lindenhurst) secured the win for the Setters.
For Pace, Gregory and Clark each netted a pair of goals on the day. In net, Matheis played the entire game, recording 10 saves, earning the win.
Pace returns to action when they take on Dominican College on
Monday, March 17 at 12:00 pm on the campus of St. Leo University.