PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. (4/8/23) - The Franklin Pierce men's lacrosse team suffered an 18-9 loss to 11^th-ranked Pace University in Northeast-10 Conference play on Saturday afternoon at Pace Stadium.

With the road loss, the Ravens drop to 4-5 (1-4 NE10) overall on the season while the Setters boost to 7-2 (3-2 NE-10) overall with the win.

Pace got off to a fast start in the first quarter, cruising ahead to a 4-0 lead thanks to a pair of goals from Daniel Zabbia. The Ravens were able to respond as graduate Joe Nutting (Amherst, N.H.) finished off a pass from senior Caleb Ikkela (Onset, Mass.) to make it 4-1, but later could not stop Zabbia from capping off the quarter with a hat-trick. Through 15-minutes played, the Setters held a 5-1 advantage.   

Joe Nutting and Caleb Ikkela connected for a second time just two minutes into the second quarter, cutting the Setter lead down to 5-2. However, Pace continued to pull away with two straight goals of their own, bringing things to a 7-2 score. To close out the half, the Ravens and Setters would each trade a strike with Pierce's coming off a wired shot by senior Sean Daly (Kingston, Mass.) after catching a feed from junior attacker Andy DeMattio (North Attleboro, Mass.). At the break, the Setters maintained control at 8-3.

Like the second quarter, the Ravens kicked off the scoring thanks to the efforts of Joe Nutting, who completed his own hat trick performance after converting on a pass from behind the cage by Owen McCormack (Hampstead, N.H.). Despite this, the Setters ended up dominating the third quarter, pulling away on a 7-0 run to close out the frame with a 15-4 lead.  

This time around, Pace would start off the scoring in the fourth quarter to make it 16-4. However, the Ravens were able to string together their first run of the game with three unanswered strikes, two of which belonged to Caleb Ikkela and Sean Daly with a man-up on  assists by Joe Nutting and Jackson Hale (Kensington, N.H.). Joe Nutting continued his dominant performance with his 4^th goal of the game, assisted by Sean Daly, and later Owen McCormack would notch an unassisted goal with Pace a man up. Jackson Hale finished off the game with a goal, aided by Owen McCormack, to make the final score 18-9.

Mike Masterpolo (Kingston, Mass.) suffered the loss in net for the Ravens, stopping 7-of-25 shots faced to move to a 4-4 record this season. Pace's Louis Ragusa earned the win (8-2) turning aside 9-of-15 shots faced.

The Ravens will return home to Sodexo Field to face Saint Michael's on Tuesday, April 11^th at 4 p.m. for more Northeast-10 Conference play.