Eddie Noonan pumps in two goals for the Ravens

RINDGE, N.H. (April 4, 2012) -- The Franklin Pierce University men's lacrosse team battled hard against No. 2 nationally ranked Le Moyne on Wednesday, but it wasn't enough as the Dolphins pulled off a 9-2 victory at Sodexo Field in Rindge. The Ravens fell to 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the Northeast-10, while the Dolphins ran their record to 9-0 and 6-0 in league play.

Franklin Pierce, which owned a 26-22 advantage in ground balls on the afternoon, came out of the gates with solid defensive play and the game was scoreless for the first 10 minutes. Franklin Pierce did not allow Le Moyne much penetration into the area in front of the net, and in turn, it gave the Ravens confidence as they were able to fire off a couple of early shots on the offensive end, including a nice look from sophomore Alex Connolly (West Newbury, Mass.).

Le Moyne goalie Jeff White made the early save on Connolly and the Dolphins made that strong effort stand up at the other end of the field with the contest's first tally with 4:18 remaining in the period, as Nick Blumer worked his way past a Raven defender into the slot and fired a shot to the upper right corner of the goal. That marker sparked the Dolphins and they would get a similar looking goal from Andrew Chadderdon a little more than two minutes later to stake Le Moyne to a 2-0 lead after one.

The Dolphins continued their surge in the second quarter as they dumped in five unanswered tallies to take a 7-0 advantage into halftime. Blumer scored his second goal of the game just 59 seconds into the quarter, while Nate Frechette tallied a goal and an assist to highlight the offensive frame for Le Moyne.

Franklin Pierce did try to fight back in the second half and were able to get a pair of goals from sophomore Eddie Noonan (Foxboro, Mass.), including one at the 1:38 mark of the third quarter and another with just :15 left in the contest. His second tally was an impressive one as Noonan was able to fire off a strike while being swarmed by five Le Moyne defenders. The goals were the 13th and 14th of the season for Noonan, who now leads the squad in that category.

Frechette joined Blumer as the pair of Dolphins who notched two goals on the afternoon. Frechette's assist gave him three points on the afternoon with a was a game-high on either side.

White was strong in net for Le Moyne as he played a little more than 35 minutes and made six saves, while allowing zero goals to earn the win to improve to 9-0 on the year.

Don Denman (Exeter, N.H.) got the start in goal for Franklin Pierce and was tagged with the loss to fall to 4-3, despite making 16 saves. Franklin Pierce also held a 9-5 advantage in face offs.

The Ravens are off this weekend, but return to the field next Wednesday when they travel to Colchester, Vt. to take on Saint Michael's at 4 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men's lacrosse, please visit the team's page at 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).