Moon Township, Pa. – An explosive opening frame sparked by a career-high performance from junior attack
Luke Laszkiewicz helped lead the
Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team to a 14-6 victory over Wagner College on Senior Day this afternoon from a partly cloudy Joe Walton Stadium.
Robert Morris (3-11, 2-4 NEC) erupted for seven goals in the first quarter, marking it its highest-scoring beginning stanza since April 30, 2011 when the Colonials ripped the net nine times in the opening 15 minutes of a 27-11 win over Sacred Heart.
The victory also pushed RMU's record to 9-1 against Wagner (4-9, 1-5 NEC) in its history, with the Colonials' only blemish coming 10 years ago in their inaugural season.
A week after setting a new career-high for goals with five at Air Force, Laszkiewicz toppled that mark with a six-goal performance this afternoon. The junior from Oshawa, Ontario found netting four times in the first quarter – including a tally with four seconds left in the stanza – and added goals in the third and fourth frames to surpass his personal record. In doing so, Laszkiewicz becomes the eighth player in program history and second this season to score six goals in a game. He also reaches a team-high 30 goals on the campaign, a mark that hadn't been reached since 2012.
Joining Laszkiewicz in the hat trick club was freshman attack
Adrian Torok-Orban, who scored in the first, third, and fourth quarters to turn the trick for the second time in his career. Junior midfielder
Eric Rankel scored twice and dished out three assists on the day, while classmate
James Rahe and redshirt junior attack
Ryan Madigan each tallied a goal and a helper.
RMU set the tone for the afternoon with three goals within a span of 2:25 to begin the game. A tally from Torok-Orban stretched the Colonial lead to 4-0, but Patrick McMenamin dented the scoreboard for the visitors with 3:36 left in the opening frame. However, a natural hat trick from Laszkiewicz that began 22 seconds after the Seahawks' goal gave RMU all the cushion it would need after one quarter.
Wagner cut the Colonial advantage in half at 8-4 with McMenamin's second of the contest, but RMU closed the second quarter by beating the buzzer with a second remaining as senior captain
Jacob Ruest buried a shot from 10 yards out off a Rankel pass.
The Colonials made it three for three with goals in the waning seconds of a stanza as Madigan found enough room on the five-hole of Seahawks goaltender Anthony Paruso to make it 12-5 with nine seconds left in the third quarter.
With a 13-6 lead and less than six minutes remaining, Laszkiewicz closed out his career-best performance with his patented underhanded laser off a feed from sophomore attack
Justin Mayfield.
Between the pipes, freshman goaltender
Chase Rose made 10 saves in 55:14 to pick up the win, while sophomore
Brett Cass stopped all three shots he saw in the final 4:46.
Redshirt junior midfielder
Chris Barney was dominant at the X, winning 16 of 23 draws and collecting nine groundballs.
Prior to the game, RMU recognized the careers of four departing seniors in
Luc Magnan,
Jacob Ruest,
Joseph Scenna, and
Michael Seidel. In their final games, Magnan scooped up four groundballs, Ruest tallied a second quarter goal, Seidel assisted on Laszkiewicz's buzzer-beater in the opening frame, and Scenna broke Dan Mulford's (2006-09) record for career starts with his 54th.
Robert Morris will return its six leading scorers in 2016, along with 2014 All-NEC Rookie Team selection
JonPatrik Kealey, who missed this season due to an injury.
