WESTON, Mass. – Sophomore Nicky Rodrigo (Miami, Fla.) and junior Peter Leighton (Wilmington, Mass.) scored four goals apiece, while also making four assists and one assist, respectively, to lead Regis College over visiting Johnson & Wales (R.I.), 14-9 in non-conference men's lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon. The Pride grab their eighth win of the season as they move to 8-4, while the Wildcats fall to 2-9 on the year.
The Pride jumped out to an early 3-0 lead by the 6:56 mark of the first quarter. Alex Ferran (Miami, Fla.) opened up the scoring off an Andrew O'Reilly (Hollis, N.H.) feed before Rodrigo and Leighton followed with their first goals of the contest.
The Wildcats answered with back-to-back unassisted goals from Keegan Donaher (Chelmsford, Mass.) and Tyler Thompson (West Chester, Pa.) to cut the deficit to one with 36 seconds to play in the quarter. Jack O'Brien (Milton, Mass.) provided the Pride with some extra breathing room after receiving a pass across the top from Leighton and burying a shot just before time expired.
Regis continued to build on their lead when they scored two goals less than 10 seconds apart in the second quarter. Rodrigo cashed in on a Billy Stewart (W. Roxbury, Mass.) feed, and seconds later after a faceoff win by O'Brien, Rodrigo found Leighton on the back door to extend the lead to 6-2. Chris Macchi (Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.) of JWU and Stewart traded scores to close out the half with the Pride leading 7-3.
Coming out of the break, the Crimson & Gold were able to add four more goals in the third, while the Wildcats potted a pair of their own. Rodrigo had a hand in all four tallies, scoring twice as well as helping on a Peter Fucci (Amherst, N.H.) goal and Stewart's second of the game. For the visitors, Thompson connected with T.J. Consiglio (New Fairfield, Conn.) before netminder Mike Russo (Chelmsford, Mass.) carried the ball up the length of the field and fed Macchi for his second goal.
Defenseman Colby Connell (Warwick, R.I.) found his way onto the scoresheet early on in the final quarter when he made a nice feed to Leighton, who capitalized to make it a 12-5 game. O'Reilly scored an unassisted goal just over a minute later after taking the ball behind the net and curling in front for a quick shot.
The Wildcats started to show some life and even outscored the Pride, 4-1 over the last nine minutes, but their deficit proved to be too great to overcome as Regis closed it out for the win. Consiglio scored twice during that run to finish with a hat trick for the game, while Brian Hillenbrand (Portsmouth, R.I.) had a goal and an assist and Damian Bandereck (Topsfield, Mass.) added a goal as well. Leighton closed out the scoring for the Pride off a pass from Fucci.
Senior goalie Breandan Crane (Billerica, Mass.) made 11 saves to get the win in goal for Regis, while Russo made 19 saves for JWU in the losing effort.
The Wildcats return to action on Monday with a home game against Lasell at 7 p.m. The Pride will face Johnson State at home on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.