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Staten Island, NY – Lafayette pulled away late, scoring the last three goals of the game in recording a 10-5 victory over Wagner in the 2015 men's lacrosse season opener for both teams at frigid Hameline Field.
 
Eric Joseph broke a 2-2 tie with a goal at the 4:14 mark of the of the first half off of a Jason Sands assist to give the Leopards a 3-2 halftime lead. Lafayette then rattled off the first four goals of the second half, capped by a Robert Oraziatti tally three minutes into the fourth quarter which widened the Leopard led to 7-2.
 
The Seahawks then countered with a 3-0 run of its own, kick-started by an unassisted goal by freshman midfielder Billy Orme 6-2,190, Great Falls, VA / Langley) with 11:31 to play that made it a 7-3 game. Just 1:09 later, junior midfielder Paul DeVita (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) found the back of the cage on an unassisted goal to draw Wagner to within 7-4.
 
Then, with 9:00 left in the game, freshman midfielder Connor Nolan sank Wagner's third consecutive unassisted score, which made it a two-goal game at 7-5. The Leopard then quelled the Wagner surge with a Mac Gallagher goal with 4:26 left, which made it 8-5 and started a game-ending three-goal spree with Sonny Round and Matt Close adding late goals as the Leopards went on to record the 10-5 win.
 
Redshirt-sophomore midfielder Patrick McMenamin (Longport, NJ /St. Augustine Prep), a member of the 2014 NEC All-Rookie team, picked up where he left off last season with two first-half goals, which were then followed by the second-half tallies by Orme, DeVita and Nolan.
 
Round led Lafayette with two goals while Morgan Wesby also notched two points on a goal and an assist. Sands was the third Seahawk with two points which came on a pair of assists.
 
Lafayette outshot Wagner 33-25 and won 11-of-17 faceoffs while the Seahawks held a 17-15 edge in ground balls. The Leopards were 2-of-3 on extra-man opportunities while Wagner was 0-of-3 on EMOs.
 
Matt Cortese came up with 10 saves in recording the win in goal for the Leopards while junior Anthony Peruso (Warwick, NY / John S. Burke Catholic).
 
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