SPRINGFIELD, Mass. American International College freshman Quinn Ceasar (Dalton, Mass.) gave men's lacrosse its first lead of the season, scoring the game's first goal, but No. 7 Adelphi University put AIC away in Northeast-10 action at Abdow Field Saturday afternoon, 24-7.
With the loss AIC falls to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in league tilts, while with the win Adelphi moves to 3-1 and picks up their first conference win of the season in as many tries.
Ceasar notched his first career goal just 3:42 into the contest, an unassisted strike to give his Yellow Jackets their first lead of the season.
The Panthers got things going quickly after. Senior Salvatore Tuttle fed freshman teammate Gordon Purdie, Jr. twice in a span of 17 seconds. Tuttle is the reigning NE-10 Player of the Week, while Purdie garnered Rookie if the Week honors last Monday.
The Panthers rattled off four straight to take control, 4-1, but Jacket junior John Magliano (Upton, Mass.) cut the deficit in half with his third of the season at the 3:34 mark in the first, assisted by classmate Eric Overdahl (Milford, Mass.).
AIC rookie Hunter Cooney (Rochester, Mass.) also netted his first career goal in the second. Classmate Colton Larkin (Norwalk, Conn.) used a man-up opportunity later in the stanza, but the Panthers clobbered AIC in the frame, 10-2, taking a 16-4 edge into the intermission. AU was powered in the period by four goals from Anthony Gomez.
The Yellow Jackets held Adelphi to eight goals in the second half and scored three themselves. Junior Kevin Papineau (Westfield, Mass.) had his hand in on all three scoring tallies, assisting senior Michael Palmieri (Guilford, Conn.) and Overdahl in the third and scoring the game's final goal assisted by his brother, Corey Pepineau (Westfield, Mass.).
AIC senior Josh Gagnon (West Springfield, Mass.) snagged a team-high four ground balls in the losing effort. Freshman netminder Tariq Qureshi (Elmont, N.Y.) made 13 saves.
The Yellow Jacket return to action Friday, Mar. 11 at Assumption College. Game-time with the Greyhounds is slated for 1 p.m. from Worcester, Mass.
