Roger Williams Lacrosse Slips By Wheaton

The Roger Williams University men's lacrosse team withstood a late rally from Wheaton College to earn a 9-8 victory over the Lyons in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon at Bayside Field. 

Wheaton freshman Alex Keiver (North Andover, Mass./Kimball Union Academy) led the squad offensively with three goals including his first-career marker at 13:26 of the second quarter. Senior Sean Doherty (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) and sophomore Matthew Hillman (Brookline, Mass./Brookline) accounted for two goals, respectively, and senior Will Compton (Deering, N.H./Proctor Academy) added one tally. 

The Hawks received goals from seven different scorers including two each from junior Jon Nessa (Concord, Mass./Concord-Carlisle)and senior Drew Beck (South Salem, N.Y./John Jay). Beck and Nessa also combined to assist on four markers in the contest. 

Roger Williams jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the first quarter as Beck scored 52-seconds into the game, junior John Ricciardi (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) found the back of the net at 12:19 and senior Kirby Sundquist (Concord, Mass./Concord-Carlisle) capped the scoring with 10:56 on the scoreboard. 

In the second quarter, the Lyons outscored the hosts by a 4-1 margin to head into the break tied-up at four-all. Keiver got the offense going at the 13:26 mark with his first-career collegiate goal on a nice pass from freshman Liam Williams (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme). Compton followed with his third goal of the season at 9:51 and Doherty scored back-to-back goals at 4:33 and 3:24 after Sundquist finished on the Hawks only marker of the quarter at 7:24. 

Wheaton made a comeback effort again in the third quarter erasing a 7-4 deficit with three unanswered goals in a span of two minutes and 49-seconds. Down by three with under six minutes to play, Keiver buried a shot at the 5:00 mark to make it a 7-5 gap for the Lyons. Wheaton then capitalized on two man-up opportunities as Hillman tallied both goals on feeds from Doherty at 4:08 and 3:11. 

Nessa pushed the Hawks ahead in the fourth quarter with a pair of goals at 11:56 and 9:07 before Keiver notched the final tally of the game at 5:04. The Lyons recorded two shots on net in the final moments of the contest but Roger Williams sophomore goalkeeper Luke Aubrey (Norwalk, Conn./Brien-McMahon) turned away both game-tying bids. 

Aubrey finished with a game-high 14 saves for the Hawks. Wheaton junior goalkeeper Harrison Bramhall (Barrington, R.I./Trinity Pawling)stopped ten shots. 

Wheaton (0-2, 0-0 Pilgrim) travels to Colorado College March 13 for a non-conference matchup at 6 p.m. Live stats and video will be available for the Lyons contest against the Tigers.