The Shoremen lost to Widener University in non-conference play during a home game at Kibler Field
By Austin Allen
Elm Staff Writer
The Shoremen couldn’t overcome Widener’s sophomore Conner Heisman as he posted three goals tough goals and dished out four assists. This lead to visiting Widener to an 18-11 victory over the Shoremen in a non-conference men’s lacrosse game played on Saturday afternoon on Kibler Field at Roy Kirby, Jr. Stadium.
To start the match, the Shoremen were looking to come out with high energy and extreme focus as they knew they needed to win this game at home.
“We knew as a group what we had to do today, and I just wanted to make sure our guys were focused on the task at hand.” senior Cody Pascale said, “We had a great game plan going in, and I thought we executed that game plan to a high level.”
Junior Joe Tobin got the scoring started with an unassisted goal 4:47 into the game, but Widener scored the last four goals of the quarter to take a 4-1 lead after the first. Scoring the last four goals of the quarter gave Widner a huge momentum going into the second quarter of play. During the run, opponent Paz Gismondi scored two of the goals, including a man-up goal off an assist from opponent Timmy Certeza with 3:05 left to play in the quarter.
For WC, freshman Logan Clefisch scored a goal early in the second quarter. This goal came quick as it was only 40 seconds into the quarter of play. Pascale followed that with a goal 34 seconds later off an assist from sophomore Alex Kilgour. This huge goal cut the lead to 4-3 with 13:46 left in the opening half.
Junior Keen Griffin said, “It was important for us to keep our composure and make sure we continued to do things the right way. We were not worried and knew the mistakes we had to correct going into the second half of play, and coach reminded us of that.”
Widener came out and ran off the next five straight goals to take a 9-3 lead over the Shoremen with a little under four minutes to play. There was a man-up goal from opponent Heisman with Gismondi getting the assist. Heisman chipped in four of the five goals for Widener during the run as well.
Sophomore Jeremy Wilson scored a pair of unassisted goals, separated by only 68 seconds to trim the lead to 9-5 with a little over two minutes to play in the half. Widener, however, scored a pair of goals from opponent Matt Coppola, the first with 31 seconds to go. The second goal came again from Coppola with just 22 seconds to play following a Shoremen face off violation. This would then push the lead to 11-5.
Tobin said, “There were a lot of quick scores on both sides, I’m happy how our team is playing, and we just have to continue to fight like we always do.”
The Pride scored the first three goals of the third quarter to push the lead to 14-5 with a little over four minutes to play. Freshman Luke Brennan scored off an assist from Clefisch, and Tobin added an unassisted goal with 10 seconds left in the third quarter to close the gap to 14-7. To end it, both teams scored four goals in the fourth quarter for the final margin and the final score was Shoremen 11, and Widener 18.
For the Shoremen, Wilson had three goals, senior captain Cooper Sloan had two goals and one assist, Tobin finished with two goals, and Pascale finished with one goal and one assist. Junior goalie and team captain Chris Del Rosario finished with 16 saves. Freshman TC White had three ground balls and two caused turnovers, while junior Joey Sivo went 20 for 32 on face-offs. The Shoremen went 14-for-16 on their clear attempts and went 0-for-2 on the man-up.
Wilson was officially named the Goose Nation TV Shoremen Player of The Game for the first time in his career. Up next for the Shoremen is at home vs St. Mary’s on Wednesday, March 4 at 4:00 p.m.
