DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – The FDU-Florham men's lacrosse team closed out their seven game road stretch with a 13-4 victory over the Delaware Valley College Aggies on Wednesday afternoon in Doylestown, Pa.
The Devils (6-4, 2-0 Freedom) proved their toughness on the road, winning six of their seven straight games away from Madison. Against the Aggies (5-4, 1-1 Freedom), it was seniors Nick Ardolino (Florham Park, N.J.) and Jake Higgins (Bridgewater, N.J.) who led the charge on the offensive end as each finished the game with a hat trick.
Less than a minute into play, the Aggies won the faceoff and Bill Long netted the first goal of the game to give Delaware Valley an early 1-0 lead. However, just minutes later, the Devils countered with a goal from Higgins off an assist from sophomore Matt Melnik (Clifton, N.J.).
The Aggies went on to add two more goals in the first quarter off of shots from Pat Davis and Seth Clauser. To kick off the second quarter, Dalton Rimmer (Vernon, N.J.) won the face off for FDU-Florham and the ball made its way into the stick of Daniel Minnich (Laurys Station, Pa.), who dished the ball off to Dave Magrini (Montclair, N.J.) for a Devils' goal. Minnich had no issues finding his open teammates as he totaled a season-high four assists in the game to go along with two goals.
Trailing by one, the Devils added two more goals to retake the lead off of shots from Ardolino and Minnich. Just seconds after the Minnich goal, the Aggies responded with a goal of their own from Alexander McKenzie off of the assist from Troy Darpino to tie the game up at 4-4. Following the McKenzie score, the Devils went on to score nine unanswered goals.
The Devils retook the lead when Minnich sent a pass over to David Stewart (Narbeth, Pa.), who rifled the ball to the back of the net. With the clock winding down and just seconds left in the half, Magrini scored his second goal of the game off of the assist from Dan Decker (East Setauket, N.Y.) to give the Devils a 6-4 lead heading into halftime.
The second half featured seven goals by FDU-Florham. The first two scores of the half came from Ardolino and Higgins. Ardolino netted his third goal of the game with around eight minutes left to play in the third quarter to complete the hat trick. The Devils closed out the game with goals from Peter Biondi (Buffalo, N.Y.), Minnich and Decker to seal the 13-4 victory over the Aggies.
Jacob Tomasik, the Aggies goalie, had a busy day protecting the net as FDU-Florham sent 48 shots in his direction. Tomasik did manage to make 18 saves.
FDU-Florham will finally have the opportunity to play in front of the home crowd as they welcome the King's College Monarchs to Madison on Saturday, April 11, at 1 p.m. for the home opener at Robert T. Shields Field.
