Late Rally for Men's Lacrosse Comes Up Just Short in 12-11 Setback to Pace

Eddie Noonan with three goals on the night to lead the Ravens' attack

RINDGE, N.H. (April 25, 2014) – Junior attackman Eddie Noonan (Foxboro, Mass.) scored a team-high three goals, including one with 2:17 remaining to pull the Ravens to within one, but the Franklin Pierce University men’s lacrosse team could not come up with the equalizer in the closing seconds in a tough 12-11 setback in the 2014 season finale on Friday night at Sodexo Field in Rindge.

Franklin Pierce concluded its season with a 6-7 overall record and a 4-7 mark in the Northeast-10, but despite the loss the overall win total was the second highest in program history. Pace improved to 5-7 and 4-7 in league play.

Fueled by an outstanding crowd of supporters all night, the Ravens put on a late rally after trailing 12-9 with 5:57 remaining. Sophomore Casey Burnett (Windham, N.H.), who put up three points on the night with two goals and an assist, got one of those markers on a man-up situation with 4:04 left, and Noonan bulled his way through traffic to the top of the crease where he was able to slip a shot past Pace goalie Timothy Izzo to trim the deficit to one.

Noonan’s goal was the result of a fantastic defensive play by sophomore Malcolm Sutton (Hooksett, N.H.), who picked off a pass in the Ravens’ zone, and in one quick motion turned to head up field where he got a pass off to Noonan, who worked his magic from there.

Pace tried to kill the clock in the remaining seconds, but a turnover enabled Franklin Pierce to take one last shot, but it sailed wide with just :03 left.

Franklin Pierce held a 17-12 edge in shots in the final 15 minutes, but for the game trailed in that department by a 50-39 margin, including a 20-8 deficit in the third quarter as Pace put on an offensive show scoring seven times.

Matt Gebhardt, who had a game-high seven points (4 goals, 3 assists), logged four of those points in the third quarter alone on a pair of goals and assists on two others. His second assist of the quarter came on Matthew Cossidente’s marker with 4:48 left in the frame that gave the Setters a 7-6 lead, and they would not relinquish it from that point on.

Adam Mirkin made it 10-6 Pace with just under 90 seconds remaining in the third, as the goal seemed to take the air out of the Franklin Pierce faithful. However, new life was breathed back into the facility as Cody MacLellan (Keene, N.H.) beat the period buzzer with a strike off a feed from Kevin Dargin (Littleton, Mass.). The late goal lifted the Ravens, who tried to storm back in the fourth before coming up just short.

Friday’s game proved to be quite entertaining with six ties and six lead changes. Tom Gallagher (Southington, Conn.) got the scoring started for Franklin Pierce in the first quarter with his first career goal, while Brenden Caldeira (Sandwich, Mass.) struck home a pair to finish the season with a nine-game point streak, which is the longest current active streak on the team.

While Gallagher was scoring his first career goal, Dargin tossed in one to give him 29 for the season, which was the third highest total in a single season, and gave him 73 for his career, which is just four off the program record for career markers.

Senior Alex Connolly (West Newbury, Mass.) scored a tally to round out the scoring for the Ravens, as the marker came in his final collegiate game.

Junior goalie Don Denman (Exeter, N.H.) made a season-high 20 stops on the night to finish the season with 171 saves. He took the loss to fall to 6-7 on the season. His counterpart in net, Pace’s Izzo, stopped 10 shots to earn the win and improve to 5-7 on the year.

William Scioscia followed Gebhardt with three goals of his own, while Tommy Gilmore netted two to aid in the offensive attack for the Setters. Ryan Valdez assisted on a game-high four goals.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men’s lacrosse, please visit the team’s page at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu. To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men’s lacrosse apparel can do so on the athletic department’s online store at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)