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Pictured Above: Freshman attackman Andrew Streilein (photo by Jim O'Connor)

Newark, NJ – Freshman attackman Andrew Streilein (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape), the reigning and two-time NEC Rookie of the Week, recorded a hat trick and the Seahawk defense did the rest in leading the Wagner men's lacrosse team to its third straight victory, a 7-2 win at NJIT this afternoon.
 
With the win, Wagner, under the leadership of fourth-year head coach Matt Poskay, evens its record at 4-4. The four victories, as well as the three-game winning streak, are high water marks for a Seahawk program that is in its 15^th season.
 
Today's game marked the final non-conference contest of the season for the Seahawks who are next in action on Saturday, April 4 when they host Bryant at Hameline Field in a 1:00 p.m. Northeast Conference (NEC) clash. Wagner is 1-0 in NEC play this season, having earned a thrilling 6-5 overtime victory over Mount St. Mary's on March 21.
 
The freshman midfield tandem of JP Pawela (Montgomery Village, MD/St. John's College) and Billy Orme (Great Falls, VA/Langley) combined on the game's first score this afternoon. After the teams played more than 12 minutes of scoreless lacrosse, Pawela sank a goal with 2:19 left in the first quarter off an Orme assist. With just seven seconds remaining in the opening quarter, junior midfielder Paul DeVita (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) deposited an unassisted goal to make it a 2-0 game.
 
The Highlanders (0-8), who are in their first season competing as a Division I program, cut the deficit in half on an unassisted goal by Joe Lomeli with 13:04 left in the first half. Wagner maintained its 2-1 lead until striking for three unanswered goals in the final 6:49 of the half in building a 4-2 lead at the intermission,
 
Streilein began the 3-0 run with a score at the 6:49 mark off an assist from redshirt-sophomore attackman Patrick McMenamin (Longport, NJ/St. Augustine Prep) to make it a 3-1 game. The Seahawks struck again just 41 seconds later when Patrick McMenamin found attackman Billy Battaglia (Madison, NJ/Madison) and the junior found the range in extending Wagner's lead to 4-1 with 6:08 to go before halftime.
 
Streilien then capped the 3-0 surge by sinking an unassisted score with 4:02 remaining in the half, as the Seahawks took advantage of a man-up situation, which gave Wagner a 5-1 lead heading into halftime.
 
NJIT drew first blood in the second half on an unassisted goal by Liam Derkasch at the 11:31 mark of the third quarter in bringing the Highlanders to within three goals at 5-2. That's the way the score remained until Streilein blasted home his team-leading 16^th goal of the season off a feed from DeVita with 7:56 to go in the third quarter, pushing the Seahawk lead to 6-2.
 
The fourth quarter was another defensive-minded affair with the lone goal coming with just 1:40 left in the game when redshirt-sophomore midfielder Patrick McMenamin (Longport, NJ/St. Augustine Prep) found paydirt on another DeVita assist to fashion the final score at 7-2.
 
For Streilein, this marks his third hat trick of the season. DeVita also finished with three points (1G, 2 A), Patrick McMenamin had two points (2A), while William McMenamin, Pawela and Battaglia wound up with one goal apiece.
 
The Green & White held an overwhelming 42-20 advantage in shots and won 7-of-11 faceoffs while the Highlanders led in ground balls, 23-17. Both man-down units had the upper hand this afternoon as Wagner was successful on just 1-of-6 EMOs while limiting NJIT to 0-of-4 shooting in this category.
 
The aggressive Seahawk defense, which entered the game ranked No. 11 nationally, with an 8.00 goals allowed per game average, forced the Highlanders into committing 17 turnovers on the day.
 
Junior goalie Anthony Peruso (Waldwick, N/John S. Burke Catholic), who entered the game ranked No. 10 nationally in goals allowed per game (7.78), came up with eight saves as NJIT was successful on 2-of-20 shots. Senior defenseman Matt Bunting (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) and sophomore defenseman Evan Clark (Vaughan, Ontario/The Hill Academy) came up with a pair of caused turnovers apiece for the Seahawks.
 
Freshman midfielder Brian Hadley (Summit, NJ/Summit), seeing his most extensive time of the season in the circle, won 5-of-7 faceoffs while sophomore midfielder Anthony Labetti (Moorestown, NJ/Moorestown ) and William McMenamin were each 1-of-2 on faceoffs.
 
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