On Monday, March 17, Villanova men’s lacrosse (2-5) picked up a 16-9 win over Brown at home.
The victory came off back-to-back defeats to the University of Pennsylvania, 11-8, and No. 20 St Joseph’s University, 12-8.
“It’s great to get a win, but more importantly we played well,” head coach Mike Corrado said. “We’ve been trying to put 60 minutes together, and I thought today was our best effort of the year. It’s hard, and you’re not going to be perfect the whole game, but I thought we played our best 60 minutes of the season and broke out offensively.”
Less than two minutes into the first quarter, the Wildcats opened the scoring off a goal from freshman attacker Gavin Michener. Sophomore midfielder Nicholas Lucchesi doubled the lead six minutes later.
The Wildcats maintained their two-goal lead and kept Brown scoreless for the entire first quarter.
“[Getting in front] was nice,” Corrado said. “We’ve had some tough first halves like six nothing to Penn and eight-two to St Joe’s. [In those games] we actually played really good second halves but it’s hard to make up that much space against a good team so it was nice today to get on top.
The second quarter began with several chances from the Bears.
Villanova freshman goalkeeper Dennis Fargione made two key saves. Fargione replaced redshirt freshman Anthony Wilson as Villanova’s starting goalkeeper.
“[Fargione] is a freshman goalie at the Division I level” Corrado said. “[Division I] is a really hard spot to be in but for the most part he’s done great. He’s done a nice job for us and I’m happy where he is.
Brown’s frustrations continued to build. After four minutes of play, an illegal body check was called against Brown senior midfielder Wells Bligh due to indirect contact on the head of sophomore defender Beau Kemler.
The Wildcats made the most of the penalty, adding their third and fourth goals to take a 4-0 lead. The third goal was courtesy of freshman attacker Brady Dumont and the fourth came from redshirt sophomore attacker Colin Michener.
With five minutes left in the second quarter, the Wildcats scored two additional goals and added another in the final minute. They went into halftime with a 7-0 lead.
Coming out of halftime, Brown scored its first goal of the game after just a minute of play. The Wildcats instantly responded off a goal from senior attacker Luke Raymond.
The Bears scored twice more, but the Wildcats still held an eight-goal lead following scores from Lucchessi and graduate attacker Matt Licata. The Wildcats held a double-digit lead come the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Bears went on a run and cut the lead to single digits. Despite the growing presence of the Brown offense, the Wildcats were able to hold their lead.
“[Comebacks] happen in lacrosse,” Corrado said. “I think we have some good veterans down low who have played in a ton of games. I thought those guys did a good job of making stops and having good clears.”
Up next for the Wildcats is the beginning of conference play.
The Wildcats will travel to Denver, CO on March 29 for a Saturday afternoon matchup against the University of Denver (4-4). The match is set for 5 p.m. ET, 3 p.m. MT, at Peter Barton Stadium and can be streamed on FloSports.
