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Fairfield, CT – Sacred Heart, which received a seven-goal outing from Matt Mawdsley, overcame a 6-5 early second-half deficit by scoring nine unanswered goals en route to posting a 16-8 victory over Wagner in Northeast Conference (NEC) men's lacrosse action at wind and rain-swept Campus Field this evening.

Despite receiving two goals apiece from sophomore Paul DeVita (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) and junior Cory Santor (Glastonbury, CT/Glastonbury), the Seahawks fall to 2-9 on the season and 0-4 in NEC play. With the win, the Pioneers improve to 5-7 overall and now own an NEC mark of 3-1.

Sacred Heart held a 52-22 edge in shots, led in ground balls, 42-28, while winning 18-of-27 faceoffs. The Pioneers were 2-of-6 on extra-man opportunities while Wagner was 0-of-1. Alec Dauses and Cody Marquis added two goals each for Sacred Heart which used three different goalies who combined for six saves in the win.

Wagner won the first five faceoffs of the game as the score was knotted at 3-3 after one quarter of play. The back-and-forth nature of the game continued in the second quarter. In fact, neither team could separate by more than one goal during the entire opening half.

With 1:56 to play before intermission, freshman Gus Colonna (Northfield, MA / Northfield Mount Hermon) sank an unassisted goal to forge the fifth tie of the half as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms with the game knotted at 5-5.

The Seahawks grabbed their final lead of the game when senior Matthew Shute (Suffield, CT/Suffield) deposited an unassisted goal just 2:38 into the second stanza. Nick Fairley answered at 9:59 for SHU which marked the game's sixth tie. Then, just 36 seconds later, Matt Gannon gave the Pioneers the lead for good at 7-6. This score was the second in what would become a 9-0 run that lengthened the Sacred Heart lead to 14-6.

While Wagner held the upper hand in the faceoff department in the early goings, Sacred Heart won 14-of-16 second-half faceoffs en route to victory.

DeVita put Wagner back on the board, off an assist from sophomore Billy Battaglia (Madison, NJ/Madison), with 9:16 to go which made it a 14-7 game. This was the second goal of the game that featured this combination as Battaglia fed DeVita for the game's first goal 2:40 into the contest. On the evening, Battaglia wound up with a career-high three assists.

Freshman Anthony Labetti (Moorestown, NJ/Moorestown) was 9-of-22 on faceoffs and led the Seahawks in ground balls with seven. Sophomore Daniel Valencia (Gaitherburg, MD/Gaithersburg) made his presence felt on the defensive end, recording five ground balls along with a team-high two caused turnovers.

Senior Nicholas Gibaldi (Rocky Point, NY/Rocky Point) made 12 saves in goal in 52:31 of action. Sophomore Anthony Peruso (Warwick, NY / John S. Burke Catholic) recorded two saves in a 4:17 stint in goal while redshirt-freshman Frank DeLuca (Farmingdale, NY / Farmingdale) registered three saves in 3:12, which marked the first action of his career.

The Seahawks conclude the 2014 regular season with NEC road dates at Mount St. Mary's (4/19) and at Bryant (4/26).
 
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