Two Wins to Start Saints Men’s Lax Season

By Olivia Kremer Last updated Mar 10, 2020

Jordan Dow from the Men's Lacrosse team. Photo Credit: St. Lawrence University's Athletics

St. Lawrence Men’s Lacrosse opened their season on February 25, with a staggering 20 goal game over neighboring, SUNY Potsdam. Recording notable goals for the Saints were attackmen Brian Cunningham and Jack Hennessey who each scored 4. Zach Prime, a junior from Duxbury, MA went 16-17 on face-offs, carrying over his dominance in the circle from last year where he had a face-off percentage of .561.

Also notching significant points for St. Lawrence, was senior Mike Donnelly with 5 assists. Donnelly’s highlight of the day however was his behind the back, top shelf goal off an assist from Cunningham to give the Saints an 8-goal lead in the second half.

Quoted after the game Hennessey stated, “It was a good to get a win for our first game but we know we have to be ready for a tougher opponent with Cortland. Our senior leadership has been unbelievable all year and I think that is going to produce dividends throughout the entire season.” The junior from Hingham, MA ended the 2019 season with 46 points.

Leaving the 2019 season ranked at 20 in the US Division III Poll, the program looks forward to this coming season with 38 returners. Among those returners are seniors, Tyler Burns, Mike Donnelly and Alex Terry, who were all named both USILA/Warrior All-Americans and Inside Lacrosse Pre-Season All-Americans. Burns and Terry were key players on the defensive end for the Saints finishing for a combined 83 groundballs and 44 caused turnovers. Donnelly recorded 46 goals and 20 assists last season and is projected to continue this dominance on the offense this year, as previewed in the Potsdam game.

With the start of every season, the Saints look forward to the new talent that the first-years bring to the field. The program brought in 14 players, all of whom got minutes in the season opener.

The Saints second game against #19 SUNY Cortland on March 4 ended with a score of 10 to 5 in favor of St. Lawrence. The Red Dragons opened their own season with a 15-6 win over Maritime Academy led by Terrence Haggerty, Dante Yacavone and Zak Jones who each respectively scored three goals.

Wednesday’s game between two nationally ranked teams was nothing less of exciting. Saint’s players Peter Koch ’21, Mike Donnelly and Jack Hennessey combined 8 goals on the day.

Though the score was significantly less throughout the first half than either team’s season opener, the intensity only rose. St. Lawrence pulled out in front in the 4th period thanks to a few quick goals by Mike Donnelly and Peter Koch ’21.

The men’s next game will be against SUNY Geneseo at their home field, Hall/Leet Stadium in Canton. The game will commence at 12 pm and will also be available to stream on the Saints Athletics website.