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Pictured Above: Junior defenseman Daniel Valencia (photo by Jim O'Connor)Staten Island, NY – The Wagner College men's lacrosse team, fresh off of Tuesday's 12-4 victory over VMI, will gun for its second straight win when the Seahawks host Mount St. Mary's on Saturday, March 21 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) opener for both teams.
The Seahawks, under the direction of fourth-year head coach
Matt Poskay, and Mountaineers enter the contest with identical 2-4 records.
Freshman attackman
Andrew Streilein (Mt. Laurel, NJ / Lenape) registered a hat trick to lead a balanced offensive effort that featured goals from seven different players, while junior goalie
Anthony Peruso (Warwick, NY/John S. Burke Catholic) made nine saves, in keying the win over VMI.
Wagner was in control throughout vs. the Keydets, jumping out to a 5-1 lead after one quarter before increasing its advantage to 8-2 at halftime. Redshirt-sophomore attackman
Patrick McMenamin (Longport, NJ/St. Augustine Prep) knocked in both of his goals during Wagner's eight-goal, first-half barrage and wound up with three points on two goals and one assist to match the stat line of junior attackman
Billy Battaglia (Madison, NJ/Madison). Also chipping in with two goals for the Seahawks was junior midfielder
Paul DeVita (Westfield, NJ/Westfield).
Contributing one goal and one assist apiece to the Seahawk cause were senior midfielder
Cory Santor (Glastonbury, CT/Glastonbury), as well as freshmen midfielders
JP Pawela (Montgomery Village, MD/St. John's College) and
Billy Orme (Great Falls, VA/Langley).
Junior defenseman
Daniel Valencia (Gaithersburg, MD/Gaithersburg) also got into the offensive act when he connected with Battaglia on a long outlet pass, triggering a fast-break goal by the fleet-footed junior, that gave Wagner the lead for good at 2-1 with 9:32 left in the first quarter.
Streilein paces the Green & White offensively in goals (11) and points (17). Wagner's top playmaker in the early part of the season has been Battaglia, who enters Saturday's tilt with a team-best nine assists, along with 13 points, which rank second on the team.
Patrick McMenamin is the Seahawks' third-leading scorer with 12 points (9G, 3A), junior midfielder
Paul DeVita (Westfield, NJ/Westfield), and Pawela are tied for fourth with 11 points each, as DeVita has nine goals and two assists while Pawela checks in with five goals and six assists. Another promising freshman midfielder,
Billy Orme (Great Falls, VA/Langley) rounds out the Seahawk top five in scoring with 10 points (8G, 2A).
Following a season-high four caused-turnover effort in the win over VMI, Valencia takes over the team lead in this category with nine while senior defenseman
Matt Bunting (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) checks in with seven CTs on the season.
Redshirt-sophomore
William McMenamin (Longport, NJ/St. Augustine Prep) is Wagner's No. 1 faceoff man, having won 24-of-54 (.444) battles in the circle, while also topping the team with 12 ground balls.
Guided by the dean of NEC coaches, Tom Gravante, who is in his 20
th season, Mount St. Mary's is a defensive-minded club who has been outscored by an average of 8.5-7.33 goals per game. Bubba Johnson leads the Mountaineers offense with 10 points (6G, 4A), while faceoff man Nick Haley (42-85-.494) is also the team leader in ground balls with 22 while Kyle O'Brien is No.1 on the team in caused turnovers with 11.
Goalie Matt Vierheller sports fine numbers with an 8.0 goals against average, 63 saves and a .612 save percentage.
Mount St. Mary's has won all 14 meetings that have been played between the teams, including last season's 9-5 win on April 19, 2014 in Emmitsburg, MD.
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