Castle Brothers Lifts Saints Past USJ, 10-4

THE BASICS 

Score: 
Emmanuel College, 10 – Univ. of Saint Joseph (CT), 4

Records: 
Emmanuel College Saints (6-3, 4-0 GNAC)
USJ Blue Jays (5-5, 1-2 GNAC)

Location: West Hartford, Conn. – USJ Lacrosse Field

Date: Tuesday, March 28, 2023

THE LEAD – Seniors Ryan Castle (Boxford, Mass.) and Randy Castle (Boxford, Mass.) lifted the Emmanuel College men's lacrosse team on both ends of the field Tuesday afternoon as the Saints picked up a key 10-4 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) win over the University of Saint Joseph (CT) on Tuesday afternoon in West Hartford, Mass. Ryan powered the EC offensive attack with three goals while Randy excelled in net making 16 saves in the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Castle opened the scoring with a man-up marker midway through the first quarter to put EC on top 1-0 thanks to a nice feed from GNAC Rookie of the Week Cole Cloney (Medfield, Mass.)
• Senior Drew Chant () made it 2-0 just 77 seconds later on an assist from senior Colin Dickinson (Barre, Vt.) before Castle added his second of the day with 3:56 remaining in the quarter to increase the lead to 3-0.
• The Blue Jays responded with back-to-back goals as sophomore Christian Decker (Bristol, Conn.) netted the first USJ goal of the afternoon just 42 seconds after Castle's tally to make it 3-1 followed by an unassisted marker by first year Nick Pestrichello (Wethersfield, Conn.) for his 19^th goal of the season to make it a one-goal game with 1:39 to play in the quarter.
• The Saints closed the period strong to shift momentum as junior Robert Favuzza (Saugus, Mass.) doubled up USJ at 4-2 with just 40 seconds remaining in the first before Cloney delivered the dagger by beating the buzzer with his 23^rd goal of the year with just one second to play in the quarter to give Emmanuel the 5-2 edge heading into the second quarter.
• EC backed up the strong first quarter performance with a dominant defensive showing in the second, holding the Blue Jays scoreless as Castle made three saves in the stanza while his brother added on to the lead with his third of the game with 11:35 remaining in the half to give EC a 6-2 edge, which held until halftime. Dickinson picked up his second assist of the day on the goal to put him at 99 career points.
• Junior Thomas Quigley (Marblehead, Mass.) upped the lead to 7-2 less than a minute into the third quarter after EC killed off a penalty that carried over from the second quarter to keep the momentum of its site.
• Pestrichello and Chant traded unassisted goals to make it 8-3 before EC sophomore Ryan Etzo (Bedford, N.H.) padded the lead to 9-3 with his fourth goal of the campaign with less than three minutes remaining in the third.
• Chant put the game out of reach with his third goal of the day with a man-up score to open the fourth and move the score to 10-3.
• USJ capped the scoring with a late goal from their leading scorer, senior Evan Baden (Burlington, Conn.), to account for the 10-4 final.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Ra. Castle picked up the win to move to 6-1 on the year making 16 saves on the day marking the seventh time this season he's made 12 or more stops in a contest. The performance moved him over the 100-save marker for the season marking the second straight year he's surpassed the total and is now just the third goalie in EC history to register over 400 saves in their career.
• Ry. Castle and Chant both finished with three goals while Quigley and Cloney added three points each with one goal and two assists.
• Dickinson's next point will make him the seventh player in program history with 100 career points and he will join Castle and Quigley in the club as both teammates reached the milestone earlier this season.
• EC senior Derek Delvecchio (Saugus, Mass.) was a beast in the midfield, grabbing a match-high five groundballs.
• The Saints held Baden to a season-low of just one point on the day as he entered the action with a team-best 39 points.
• The visitors also held the Blue Jays scoreless on man-up opportunities as they went 0-for-4 on the extra man advantage compared to Emmanuel's 2-for-5 performance (40.0%).
• USJ's Trey McCann made nine saves and suffered the setback in net to fall to 5-5 on the year.
• The five-game win streak for Emmanuel is the program's longest streak since 2016 when they opened the month of April with a six-game winning streak, all coming in GNAC play.
• EC improves to 2-1 all-time vs. USJ and has now won the last two meetings.

UP NEXT

• The Saints look to make it six in a row on Friday, March 31 when they host Dean College at 7:00 PM at Roberto Clement Field in Boston, Mass.
• The Blue Jays return the following day on Saturday, April 1 for a 3:30 PM road contest vs. Rivier University in Nashua, N.H.