WESTON, Mass. – The #1 Regis College men's lacrosse team won their first ever New England Collegiate Conference championship as they defeated defending NECC titleholder #3 Becker College 10-6 on Saturday afternoon in a packed Regis Stadium. The Pride wrap up their successful 2016 campaign with a 13-4 record, which was the best season in program history and with the loss, the Hawks season ends at 6-12.
Goalkeeper D.J. Barrile (Medford, Mass.) was named the Tournament MVP after making 29 saves over two games including 18 stops in the championship contest. Barrile was joined by teammates Andrew O'Reilly (Hollis, N.H.), Nicky Rodrigo (Miami, Fla.) and face-off specialist Jack O'Brien (Milton, Mass.) on the All-Tournament team.
Nicky Rodrigo, Danny Rancano (Miami, Fla.), Calvin Brault (Colchester, Vt.) and Alex Ferran (Miami, Fla.) scored two goals apiece with Ferran, Rancano and Rodrigo each adding an assist to their stat lines. Becker was led by Blake Boutiette (Burrillville, R.I.), the conference's leading goal scorer, who tallied three scores, but was shutout in the second half by a ferocious Pride defensive unit.
The game remained scoreless through the first seven minutes of play before Brault cut to the cage and Nicky Rodrigo laid a pass to the sophomore midfielder who put the ball into the net past Becker goalkeeper Jordan Mudd (Decatur, Ga.) for the opening score.
Boutiette responded fifty seconds later with an unassisted tally as he sat on the crease and pushed a shot past a Pride defender that bounced into the net to knot up the score at 1-1.
Several minutes ticked off the clock before Rodrigo regained the lead for the Crimson and Gold on a man up opportunity. Rodrigo took the rock from the back of the cage, faked a shot up high and put the ball through the tiny opening to the left of the Becker keeper to make it 2-1 Regis. This left plenty of time of Boutiette to strike again as he camped near the net, took a pass from senior midfielder Alex Rossman (Newington, Conn.) and rifled a one timer past Barrile to tied up the game at the end of one quarter.
Rancano gave the lead back to Regis as he hauled in a pass from AJ Karofsky (Barrington, R.I.) and scored one of the most remarkable goals of the season for the Pride with a behind the back shot attempt that fooled Mudd. Rancano's gino made it 3-2 Regis with 11:42 remaining before the break.
Becker outscored the Pride two to one the rest of the quarter with Boutiette and Avyay Chaganty (Bridgewater, N.J.) racking up goals and Rodrigo adding his second score of the contest to make it 4-4 at the half.
Regis wasted no time in the third period as Jack O'Brien (14-of-20, 70%) won a face-off, raced down the center of the field and scored seven seconds into the new half to give Regis a 5-4 lead.
Minutes passed before a man up goal by Daniel Johnson (Plymouth, Mass.) tied up the score 5-5. Regis scored five straight goals including another behind the back score from Rancano and a bouncing-five hole shot by Ferran to go up 10-5 with 2:04 left to play. Regis allowed Johnson to score during a man down situation, but the Pride held on to win their first championship.
2016 Men's Lacrosse All-Tournament Team
D.J. Barrile – Tournament MVP – Regis
Andrew O'Reilly – Regis
Nicky Rodrigo – Regis
Jack O'Brien – Regis
Daniel Johnson – Becker
Ryan Kearney (Katonah, N.Y.) – Becker
Jordan Mudd – Becker
JD LeMay – (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) – Mitchell
Maxmilian Crowley – (Seal Beach, Calif.) – Mitchell
David Downie – (Merrimack, N.H.) – Daniel Webster
Brandyn Torrey – (Keene, N.H.) – Daniel Webster