RINDGE, N.H. (March 19, 2012) -- The Franklin Pierce University men's lacrosse team shook off a sluggish start to down Curry College, 10-8, for its second-straight win on Monday at Sodexo Field in Rindge. The Ravens improved to 3-1 overall, marking the team's second best start in program history. Curry suffered its first loss in falling to 5-1 on the season.
Senior midfielder Ryan Dintaman (Northfield, Mass.) tossed in four goals to pace the Franklin Pierce offensive attack. Junior Brendan Cahill (Hollis, N.H.), sophomore Eddie Noonan (Foxboro, Mass.) and freshman Kevin Dargin (Littleton, Mass.) each scored a goal and assisted on another tally to register two-point afternoons.
Dintaman fired off a game-high 13 shots, while Dargin followed with 10 as Franklin Pierce rang up a 53-21 shot advantage. Dargin's two-point contest ran his streak to four-straight games with multiple points.
Dargin, along with sophomore middie and face-off specialist Eric Vincens (Ellington, Conn.) each logged seven ground balls as the Ravens held a commanding 44-25 advantage in that category. Vincens also did a solid job in the face-off circle by winning 17-of-22 attempts, which was a career-high.
Freshman goalie Don Denman (Exeter, N.H.) made seven saves in net to earn the win and improve to 3-1 on the season. Three of Denman's seven goals allowed came as the Ravens were trying to battle man-down situations, thus putting heavy strain on the goalie. He made several saves on point-blank shots, thus keeping Curry at bay.
Joseph Natale and Ronald Jensen each pumped in three goals for Curry, and despite the lopsided statistics listed above, the Colonels gave Franklin Pierce all it could handle on this afternoon.
The Colonels, who pumped in the game's first goal early in the opening quarter, got a marker from Natale with 4:30 left in the game to pull within a goal at 9-8.
A rigorous battle for the ball took place on the ensuing faceoff and each team turned it over near midfield. Dargin, finally, settled the pace down for the Ravens as he was able to force a turnover just beyond the midfield stripe, scoop up the loose ball and walk in to fire a strike past Curry goalie Michael Hibbard to stake Franklin Pierce to a 10-8 lead.
Curry didn't fold and tried to put in two goals in over the final few minutes, but the Raven defenders clamped down and thwarted the comeback attempt. The victory came just two days after the Ravens picked up one of the biggest wins in program history as they defeated in-state rival Southern New Hampshire, 8-4, in Sodexo Field.
The Colonels came out firing and took a 1-0 lead a little under six minutes in when Lanham took a feed from Sean Gallagher and threw a shot past Denman on the high side for a man-up goal.
Dintaman settled the Ravens jittery play with a pair of tallies just :34 apart, including a man-up goal with 6:22 left in the stanza off a nice feed from Noonan. Jensen tied it for Curry at the 3:38 mark of the first, but sophomore Alex Connolly (West Newbury, Mass.) put the Ravens ahead, 3-2, a little more than two minutes later with an unassisted tally.
The teams went back and forth with goals in the second quarter. Jensen struck again five minutes into the period to tie it at three-all, but Cahill responded 66 seconds later with a goal to put the Ravens back on top.
Jensen scored with 6:11 to go until the half and Cody MacLellan (Keene, N.H.) notched his second marker in as many games with 3:21 left to put Franklin Pierce back up by a 5-4 margin. Less than a minute later Lanham pumped in another man-up goal for the Colonels and the game was tied at five heading into the intermission.
The Ravens scored three-consecutive goals to open up the third quarter as Dintaman sandwiched a pair of markers around a Jimmy McInnis (Amherst, N.H.) tally. Natale finally got on the board for the Colonels with 1:22 to go in the stanza to pull them to within two at 8-6.
Noonan made it four-straight games with a goal at the 11:06 mark of the fourth quarter to put the Ravens up by three, but Curry rallied and made things interesting late.
Franklin Pierce returns to action Saturday when the Ravens travel to New York to face Adelphi at 12 p.m. Curry hosts UMass Boston, Wednesday for a 3:30 p.m. game start. (Game Recap Courtesy of Franklin Pierce Sports Information)
