Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris men's lacrosse team picked up their first ASUN victory of the season, winning 11-6 against Cleveland State. The Colonials are now 4-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play. The Vikings overall are 3-3 with a 1-1 record in the ASUN.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
About seven minutes into the game, the score remained 0-0, until
Liam Keane found
Will MacLeod in front of the net. MacLeod scored between his legs without even facing the net, and the Colonials took a 1-0 lead to start the day. A minute later, Cleveland State scored their first of the game, but a minute later the Colonials defense moved up in the play. It would be
James Christoforatos from distance, sniping in a goal to gain back the advantage. With 30 seconds left,
Will Johansen scored for the Colonials with an assist by
Nick Pelletier to end the first quarter, ahead 3-1.
In the second quarter, the Colonials were outscored 2-1, giving up one man-up goal to the Vikings. Christoforatos scored again to earn his first career two-goal game. After 30 minutes of play, RMU remained ahead 4-3.
Entering the second half, there were a lot more penalties called. The refs threw out the yellow flag on three separate occasions for both teams during the third quarter. Both teams scored a man-up goal in the third frame. For the Colonials,
Colton Lidstone scored both his two goals at the 12:47 and 4:49 mark. His first was assisted by
Liam Keane and second was passed by
David Burr. Both teams scored twice, and Robert Morris led 6-5.
The Colonials kicked it into gear for the fourth quarter, outscoring the Vikings 5-1 in the final frame. Fifth-year attacker
Taggart Clark got the Colonials going just 16 seconds in with a man-up goal. 10 seconds later after winning the face-off, freshman
Rowan Hynes scored his first career-goal from far out. The shot bounced off the ground and landed in the top corner. After CSU scored their final goal of the game with 11 minutes remaining, the Colonials added three more goals. Clark, Leary and MacLeod all produced with assists by Johansen and Lidstone. In the end, RMU won their first ASUN victory of the season, 11-6.
GET THE DEFENSE INVOLVED
On the day, two defensemen shined offensively for the Colonials. Both
James Christoforatos and team captain
James Leary pinched forward into the offensive end to make goals happen. Scoring his first two-goal game of his career was
James Christoforatos. Leary picked up his first goal of the year and his eighth in his career. He also added an assist on Christoforatos' second goal. With the defensemen earning four points in the game, this was the most points by defensemen for the Colonials in a single game, in the 2023 season.
OWN THE CIRCLE
Junior face-off specialist
Steven DelleMonache helped his team earn more offensive zone time with 13 face-off wins out of 20 draws. He also scooped up seven ground balls in the match which are the second most in his career. His previous best was in the season opener against Bucknell, picking up 10. DelleMonache's 13 wins in the circle are the fourth-most he's won in a game.
BRICK WALL
In net for the Colonials, sophomore
Nate Randall had another career day, tying his career-high in saves with 16. Randall faced a total of 38 shots and only allowed six goals, earning a .727 save percentage. In 22 games for the Colonials, this was the fifth time that Randall has finished with over a .700 save percentage.
ALL-TIME SERIES
With another victory against the Vikings, the Colonials are undefeated against the opposing program with an overall 5-0 record. RMU has won by five or more goals in all matches and is out scoring CSU all-time now 72-38. Matching the same production, the last time these two teams met,
Colton Lidstone now has four goals and four assists in the last two outings against Cleveland State. In goal,
Nate Randall owns 27 saves in his career vs. the Vikings. Also, up top
Taggart Clark owns 11 points in his past two meetings against this program.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
In today's game, both teams put up 38 shots each. The Colonials did the dirty work and scooped up 39 ground balls compared to the Vikings 21. The home side caused nine turnovers and the away side caused eight. On the extra-man opportunities, RMU went 2-for-3 and Cleveland State succeeded three out of five times. Both sides had 25 clear attempts; RMU successfully cleared 23 times and CSU did 22 times.
UP NEXT
Next week, the Colonials will head out on the road for two consecutive games. On Wednesday, March 29
th, the Colonials take on Detroit Mercy at 1:00 p.m. Following that game, they'll head south to Macon, Ga., and play against Mercer on Saturday, April 1
st at 11:00 a.m.
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