Men’s lacrosse captures first win of the season in thrilling fashion | The Triangle

Men’s lacrosse captures first win of the season in thrilling fashion

Photo courtesy Drexeldragons.com
Photo courtesy Drexeldragons.com
The men’s lacrosse team finally captured their first victory March 5 against the Saint Joseph’s University Hawks, and it was a close one.

The Dragons made the short trip to Sweeney Field with high hopes to end their losing streak and played inspired lacrosse.

Shortly into the first quarter, Joe Rainoldi netted an unassisted goal to give the Dragons the one goal advantage, which was quickly erased by the Hawks’ Chris Blewett a few minutes later.

The first quarter was a spirited, back and forth battle, and the Dragons held the lead at 3-2 heading into the second. The second quarter was more of the same, but the Hawks managed to outscore the Dragons, and the game went to the break tied 4-4.

The Hawks and Dragons continued to battle it out in the third, with both teams netting two goals and the quarter once again ending tied, at six this time.

The fourth looked bleak for the Dragons, as they allowed St. Joe’s to pull out to a three goal advantage within six minutes of the beginning of the period. It looked like too high of a mountain to climb, but the Dragons were undaunted.

Rainoldi once again made his impact felt, as he netted another goal to bring the Dragons within two with a little less than seven minutes left in the contest. Inspired to join in, freshman Matthew Varian scored a minute later to give the Dragons a real chance. The goal party between these two would continue, though, as with less than two minutes remaining, Rainoldi scored again to knot the game at nine.

Varian would not be outshone by his teammate on this day. With less than ten seconds remaining, Varian cut across the crease and blasted the ball into the back of the St. Joe’s net at the buzzer to give the Dragons their first win of the year. Varian leads the team in points this season with 13 and is second to Robert Frazee in goals, with eight.

Frazee holds the lead in goals for the team mostly due to his tremendous effort in the following contest for the Dragons, a Mar 8 game against University of Maryland at Vidas Field.

The Dragons started the game and fell out to a bit of a deficit, as Maryland took a 4-2 lead into the second period. Frazee scored once in the first and came out in the second and brought the lead to 4-3 with his second of the game. The Drexel defense was particularly strong in the second, as they held Maryland scoreless and went into halftime with Maryland leading 4-3.

The third period was where the game fell apart a bit for the Dragons. They allowed Maryland to score four goals while only netting two of their own, courtesy of Varian and once again, Robert Frazee.

In the fourth, the Dragons fought hard but fell short, despite another goal from Robert Frazee and a goal from Cole Shafer. They fell to the twelfth ranked team in the nation, 12-8.

The Dragons will look to capture their second win on March 12 against Bryant University.