Southwest Florida Shootout
Palm Beach Atlantic 8, Farmingdale State 7
NAPLES, Fla. | The Farmingdale State College men's lacrosse team competed Saturday afternoon in the Southwest Florida Shootout, falling to Division II opponent Palm Beach Atlantic University by an 8-7 final.
The teams swapped goals throughout the first quarter, with the Rams'
Connor Murtha (So.; Moriches, N.Y.) tying the game at 1-1 just 4:32 into play, before senior mid
Gerardo Maldonado (W. Hempstead, N.Y.) converted an assist from junior
Michael Cassano to knot things up at 2-all with less then five minutes to go.
FSC was down 5-4 at halftime to the Sailfish (3-0), with Rams' senior attacker
Thomas Stock (Selden, N.Y.) collecting a goal and assist in the second period. He set up an extra-man goal by freshman
Adam Giovinco (Syosset, N.Y.) at 10:56, before scoring a goal off a helper by senior
Kyle Kolano (Babylon, N.Y.) with 3:26 remaining before the intermission.
The Rams held PBA off the scoreboard for a 24:30 stretch, and tallied the only two goals of the third quarter to carry a 6-5 lead into the final 15 minutes of action. Murtha's second goal of the day came off a pass from Kolano with 6:10 to go, with freshman attack Chase DiChiaro (Ctr. Moriches, N.Y.) firing home a feed from Stock 44 seconds later to give FSC its first lead of the day at 6-5.
Giovinco set up senior
Tanner Longo (Lloyd Harbor, N.Y.) for his second goal in as many games two minutes into the final frame, pushing the Farmingdale State lead to 7-5. Palm Beach Atlantic pulled to within one with a strike at 8:20, before back-to-back goals nine seconds apart put the Sailfish in front, 8-7, with 4:12 on the clock. The Rams had three offensive possessions in an attempt to level the score, including back-to-back shots on target in the final 93 seconds by Giovinco, but were unable to score the equalizing goal.
FSC held edges in shots (37-33), faceoff wins (13-6) and ground balls (27-19), and received a 14-save effort in goal from junior netminder
Dan Erler (Smithtown, N.Y.). Stock (g, 2a) led the Rams with three points on the day, while Murtha (2g), Giovinco (g, a) and Kolano (2a) each had a pair. Senior draw man
Antonio Kaminskey (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) went 13-of-19 at the faceoff "x" to go with seven ground balls, while defenders
Gino Luchetti (Sr.; Farmingville, N.Y.) and
Joseph Bleck (Fr.; Farmingdale, N.Y.) each forced two Sailfish turnovers.
Head coach
Sean Chamberlain's Farmingdale State side returns to action Wednesday (Feb. 28) in the Empire State, when it travels for a 3 p.m. faceoff at SUNY New Paltz.
