Radnor, PA – The Rosemont men's lacrosse team (2-4, 1-0 CSAC) opened their conference schedule this afternoon against the Keystone College Giants (0-4, 0-1 CSAC) at Cabini College with a strong effort in a 15-4 win over the Giants. It was the second straight win for the Ravens; the first time in the program's short history that the team has won two consecutive games. The game also featured a personal career milestone for junior attacker Stephen Licata, whose third goal of the day represented his 100th career point.
Under overcast and chilly conditions the Ravens' Zach Bowe scored his 2nd and 3rd goals of the season to put the Ravens up 2-0 with over five minutes left in the first quarter. The Giants would tie the score at 2-2 with less than a minute remaining, but Rasool Smith's goal with six ticks left on the clock gave the Ravens the slight 3-2 lead at the end of the first.
The second quarter belonged to Rosemont as goals from Smith, Justin Regan, Bowe, and Licata would make it six straight goals for Rosemont (five in the second quarter) to take command of the game, 8-2 at the half.
Another goal from Bowe followed by a Regan score with a man advantage only seven seconds later gave the Ravens a 10-2 lead with 12:11 left in the 3rd. Keystone scored on an extra-man opportunity to break the Ravens' streak of eight straight goals, and the Giants scored again with 4:24 left in the 3rd to make the score 10-4 in favor of Rosemont. Licata would end the scoring in the 3rd quarter, hitting the nylon off a feed from Rasool Smith with 20 seconds left to make the score 11-4.
The Ravens would score all four goals in the final quarter (five unanswered goals to finish the game) to run out with the 15-4 win. The goals in the 4th frame were scored by Anthony Bottoms, Bobby Fritz, Licata and Regan.
The Ravens dominated on offense, out-shooting Keystone by a 56-12 count.
Keystone's Matthew Gobelny put in a good effort for Keystone, with 19 saves, but the onslaught of shots by the Ravens (34 on goal) would prove to be too much. Kiefer Paul earned the win for the Ravens, his second win of the season. Paul made saves on four of Keystone's eight shots on goal.
Zach Bowe filled the stat sheet for The Ravens. He scored four goals, had 17 ground balls and was a perfect 18-for-18 for faceoffs. Stephen Licata and Justin Regan each scored three times. Licata had three assists, Regan had two assists.Purnell Summers had another strong defensive game as he was credited with five of his team's eight caused turnovers.
Keystone's Michael Bradley had two goals and an assists to lead the Giants in scoring.
As mentioned earlier, Licata's third goal of today's game (added to his three assists), gave him six points for the day and 100 points for his career (70 goals, 30 assists). He is the first player in Rosemont history to reach the 100-point plateau for men's lacrosse.
Up next for the Ravens will be a non-conference game on Wednesday, 3/25 at Misericordia University. The game against the Cougars is slated for a 4:00pm start.
