Pictured Above: Senior
Spencer Kaufman
Box Score
Newark, NJ – Career highs were the order of the day on Saturday as the Wagner men's lacrosse team received five goals from senior midfielder
Spencer Kaufman, five assists by freshman midfielder
Stephen Dwyer, and 22 saves in goal by senior
Matt Sefcik – all career highs - in earning a 14-11 win at NJIT on Saturday.
The 22 saves recorded by Sefcik ties for the sixth-highest in an NCAA Division I game this this season.
In snapping a seven-game losing streak, the Seahawks improve to 2-7 on the season while the Highlanders fall to 1-9.
After opening the season with a thrilling 7-6 comeback win at Bellarmine back on February 2, Wagner was scrappy in its next seven outings, with four of those defeats coming by three goals or less, including two tough one-goal decisions.
Today, at a chilly and wind-swept Alumni Field on the campus of Rutgers-Newark, the Seahawks returned to the winner's circle, claiming their final non-conference game of the season, doing so in emphatic fashion.
While Kaufman's five goals were a team high it was Dwyer who was the Seahawks' leading scorer with seven points, adding two goals to his five assists. Others who contributed to the Seahawks' 14-goal onslaught were junior attackman
Dominic Branda (2g, 1a), senior attackman
John Norton (2g), while senior attackman
Kevin Gray, junior midfielder
Tim Schmidt, and sophomore midfielder
Tyler Grady added one goal apiece.
"I'm very proud of our team today in what was a full group effort from start to finish," said Wagner first-year head coach
Bill McCutcheon. "We executed our team offense well in what was the biggest scoring output of the season for us. NJIT is a scrappy and tough team and we fought hard for 60 minutes to secure the win with some very solid defensive stops.
"It was a day that saw some impressive individual efforts;
Spencer Kaufman,
Stephen Dwyer and
Matt Sefcik really stood out and had career days and
Kyle Stofko was excellent on defense, neutralizing their best guy." McCutcheon added. "There's a lot we can point to, but a focused energy and solid leadership helped us come out on top and I'm happy for our guys."
Senior long-stick midfielder
Riley Owens led the Seahawks in ground balls with six, to along with two caused turnovers while Stofko, a rugged and physical sophomore defenseman, also came up with two caused turnovers while collecting three ground balls. Junior
Nick Warren was 10-of-24 in the faceoff circle and second on the team in ground balls with five.
Wagner trailed 6-4 after one quarter of play with the Seahawk scores coming from senior attack Norton, Kaufman and
Tim Schmidt. The Seahawks then took control in the second quarter, reeling off six unanswered goals, outscoring the Highlanders 6-1 in the stanza, headlined by three straight scores by Kaufman within a 3:47 stretch, in surging to a 10-7 halftime lead.
The Green & White picked up where they left off at the outset of the second half on goals by Norton and Gray in building the lead to five at 12-7. NJIT then closed the quarter on a 3-0 run to cut the Seahawk deficit to 12-10 entering the fourth quarter.
Wagner then righted the ship, opening the fourth on consecutive scores by Kaufman, off a Dwyer feed, at the 11:49 mark, followed with 8:42 remaining on an unassisted tally by Branda, in pushing the lead to 14-10. The Seahawk defense shut the door from there, holding NJIT to just one score the rest of the way in fashioning the 14-11 victory, with the 14 goals marking the highest output under first-year head coach
Bill McCutcheon.
NJIT held the upper hand statistically, leading in shots (45-42), ground balls (42-32) and faceoffs (15-12). Wagner was successful on 14-of-17 clears while the Highlanders were 15-of-16 in clearing opportunities.
The Seahawks will now close the 2019 regular season with five consecutive Northeast Conference (NEC) contests, beginning with a home date on Saturday, March 30 vs. Bryant.
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