Men’s Lacrosse Open Season with Non-Conference Loss to Salem State

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The MCLA Lacrosse team kicked off their 2024 campaign this afternoon at home against the Salem State Vikings. Nathan Haley recorded his first hat trick of the season for the Trailblazers, but the Vikings got goals from six different scorers, including five goals apiece from three different players.

THE BASICS:

• Date: Saturday, February 23, 2024
• Score: Salem State 18, MCLA 6
• Records: Salem State Vikings 1-0 (LEC 0-0) | MCLA Trailblazers 0-1 (NAC 0-0-0)

HIGHLIGHTS

• MCLA scored the game's first goal when Nathan Haley took advantage of a man-up scenario that started only 27 seconds into the game. Haley found the back of the cage 14 seconds later, paying off a pass from Anthony Andolina.
• Salem scored the next six goals before Haley hit paydirt a second time with just under a minute to go in the first quarter.
• The Vikings extended their lead, scoring three times in the second quarter to take a 9-2 lead into the intermission.
• In the third quarter, the Vikings sandwiched a pair of goals before and a pair of goals after an unassisted goal from Trailblazers freshman Neal Brierly with 4:28 to go in the third frame.
• The fourth quarter featured three goals for MCLA against five for Salem State. The MCLA goals went to Josh Hemstock (at 11:28, assisted by Andolina), Lucan McGrath (at 6:27, Andolina), and Haley (Man Up at 1:44, Andolina).
• The Vikings Ryan Cohen recorded the win to go to 1-0 this season after turning aside nine of the 14 shots he faced.
• For the Trailblazers, it was Boden Dock who was saddled with the loss to fall to 0-1 despite recording a career-high 28 saves. Dock's performance today topped the 20 stops he had against SUNY Poly on March 30, 2022.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Shots: Salem 46, MCLA 15
• Saves: Salem 9, MCLA 28
• Faceoffs Won: Salem 15 of 28, MCLA 13 of 28
• Turnovers: Salem 14, MCLA 27
• Ground Balls: Salem 58, MCLA 27
• Clears: Salem 25 of 27, MCLA 22 of 28
• Man Up Opportunities: Salem 1 for 7, MCLA 2 for 7

UP NEXT:

On Saturday, MCLA will be back in action when they play host to Anna Maria College for a non-conference matchup with the AMCATS at Shewcraft Field. The first faceoff will be at 1 p.m.

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