Pictured Above: Junior midfielder JP Pawela (Photo above by Kostas Lymperopoulos)

Staten Island, NY – The Wagner men's lacrosse team delivered a top defensive performance but the Seahawks were unable to get untracked offensively all game long in dropping an 8-1 decision to Bryant this afternoon at Hamline Field.
 
Bidding to match last season's program-record of six victories, the Green & White instead fall to 5-6 overall and 0-2 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play, while the Bulldogs improve their season mark to 6-5, 2-1 in league play.
 
With Wagner trailing 2-0, junior midfielder JP Pawela (Montgomery Village, MD / St. John's College) notched what would prove to be the Seahawks' lone goal of the game, an unassisted eight-yard blast from the right wing to make it a 2-1 game with 1:44 remaining in the first quarter.
 
Bryant sank three goals in the second quarter in building a 5-1 halftime lead and added three more in the third. Following a scoreless fourth quarter, the Bulldogs came away with the 8-1 win. Tucker James and Came Ziegler deposited two goals apiece to lead Bryant offensively.
 
The Bulldogs lived up to their NEC billing as the NEC's top faceoff team in winning of 12-of-13 in the X. However, only one offensive position off a winning faceoff translated into a goal for Bryant as the Seahawks' consistently hustled back into their defensive zone and made the Bulldogs work hard for their eight goals. Junior goalie Matt Sefcik (Towaco, NJ / Morristown Beard) was stout in goal throughout, winding up with 15 saves. Bryant wound up with a 39-15 edge in shots and led in ground balls, 29-16.
 
Defensively, junior Andrew Park (Kinnelon, NJ / Kinnelon), and graduate student Daniel Valencia (Gaithersburg, MD / Gaithersburg) paced Wagner with two caused turnovers apiece. Park, who entered the game ranked fourth nationally in caused turnovers, now has 25 on the season, while Valencia and Pawela led the Seahawks in groundballs, collecting three apiece.
 
Next up, Wagner travels to Moon Township, PA to meet the Robert Morris University Colonials for a 1:00 p.m. faceoff on Saturday, April 8.