WALTHAM, Mass.  (March 31, 2018) – Bentley University men's lacrosse rallied from a 6-4 halftime deficit to score six unanswered goals in the third quarter to beat visiting Northeast-10 Conference opponent Franklin Pierce University 13-10 Saturday afternoon. The setback drops the Ravens to 4-2, 2-2 NE10 while the Falcons won their first league contest.

Raven junior attack Jake Castorf (Holbrook, N.Y.) recorded a game-high five goals in the showdown while teammate Benjamin Lassow (Mansfield, Conn.) chipped in three goals. Goalkeeper Justin Lorenzo (Goshen, N.Y.) made his sixth start in the cage for Pierce and stopped eight shots as his record fell to 4-2.

Louis Palumbo (Commack, N.Y.) became the program's all-time leader in groundball pickups as he scooped up seven loose attempts. Palumbo has 173 groundballs and counting, he passed Joey Lenox's previous mark of 169. Sean Delea (Hampstead, N.H.) also made history as he passed his cousin Kevin Dargin (107 points) to move into sole possession of third all-time on the total points list (108). Delea racked up two goals and two assists.

Team captain and defender John Massaro (Newington, Conn.) matched Palumbo's seven groundball performance. Three athletes for Bentley scored three goals apiece including attack Alex Astarita who totaled six points and three groundballs.

Franklin Pierce scored the first goal of the game after a completed clear and Lassow put in the marker to give the Ravens a 1-0 edge. Astarita netted the equalizer with 7:46 left in the quarter as Matt Sanford fed him the ball and he rifled home an attempt to make it a 1-1 game. Both squads had numerous scoring chances down in each opponents attacking area, but the shots either completely missed the cage or were turned away by the goalies as the game remained at a 1-1 deadlock.

The Falcons pushed in front 2-1 at the 12:44 mark when Astarita corralled a pass from Sanford from the left wing, stepped in and rocketed home his second goal of the game. About a minute later, Delea drove in from the top and passed the ball to Castorf who faked a high shot in the right side and pushed in a low attempt to knot the contest.

Bentley's Dave Rogers caused a turnover, which led to a rush, successful clear and quick shot by Sanford to regain the advantage to the host side at 3-2. Franklin Pierce immediately got the goal back as Nevin Kierger (Burlington, Mass.) forced Mike Vitale to run out of bounds. The Ravens set up shop down in the Bentley defensive zone and junior attack Luke Tracy (Windham, N.H.) dished to a wide-open Delea on the left wing for the tying score. About a minute and a half later, Delea dropped in his second goal of the contest to move the Crimson and Grey back ahead 4-3. Benjamin Lassow took advantage of the soft Falcon defense as they gave him space to step and shoot. Lassow converted the uncontested shot to build the Raven lead to 5-3. Bentley and FPU swapped goals to end the half as the Ravens lead by two, 6-4.

Sam Hurley and Matt Brooks tied the contest for the Falcons with two early goals. Bentley worked the ball around the back of the cage then Astarita made a quick pass to Kris Campbell who cashed in his second goal of the season at the 9:23 mark to regain the edge to the home side at 7-6. Bentley made it four unanswered goals in the third as Campbell converted a running attempt from the right side to increase the lead to 8-6. Two more goals for the Falcons upped their lead to 10-6 before Matt Brewster (Merrimack, N.H.) and Castorf connected on a catch and shoot attempt to cut the Raven deficit to 10-7 with 35 seconds left in the third.

Bentley tacked on two goals in the early stages of the fourth to up the score to 12-7. Castorf added two goals while Lassow poured in one to bring it to a three-goal game at 13-10 with 5:18 left, but Bentley held on for the lead.

Franklin Pierce returns home for their conference home opener when they welcome no. 1 nationally-ranked Le Moyne College to Sodexo Field on Tuesday for a 3:30 p.m. contest.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men's lacrosse apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store). You can also follow the men's lacrosse team on Twitter (https://twitter.com/FPUMLacrosse) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fpumlacrosse).