It was a senior day to remember for the Cabrini Men’s Lacrosse team as the Cavaliers continued their dominance in the Atlantic East Athletic Conference. The Cavaliers recorded their 25th straight conference victory this past Saturday, April 16, in a 27-3 rout of Immaculata University.
The Cavaliers overcame a slow start, as the Mighty Macs held Cabrini’s attack scoreless for the first five minutes of the contest.
An Offensive Onslaught
Cabrini broke the stalemate as senior attackman Austin Bolton scored back-to-back goals to put the Cavaliers up 2-0. What followed was an offensive onslaught, as fellow senior attackman Dillion McManus joined Bolton in trading goals until the Cabrini lead reached 8-0.
In the third quarter, this offensive explosion continued, as sophomore attackman Nate Mazurek added to the Cabrini lead with two goals. Also contributing was freshman attackman Connor Herraiz who added a goal and two assists in the third period of play. Herraiz’s stellar freshman season continued by garnering a team-leading eight points, coming in the fashion of two goals and six assists.
In addition, sophomore midfielder Jason Fridge extended his point streak to four games, as he tallied two goals in the fourth quarter.
When the clock struck zero at Edith Robb Dixon Field, the Cavaliers walked away with a convincing victory, solidifying their place as the team to beat in the Atlantic East Conference.
Seniors Bolton and McManus dominated the opposition with a combined 10 goals between them, as the Cabrini offensive continued their dominance in conference play. In this season alone, the Cavaliers have outscored AEC opponents by a total of 100-13.
Cabrini controlled the flow of the game on the offensive end, as Immaculata’s defense was subjected to constant Cabrini pressure for the majority of the game.
This was evident on the stat sheet as well, as the Cavaliers outshot the Mighty Macs by a whopping margin of 80-22.
The Dirty Work
It is easy to point to the offensive production as the source of this dominance, but the Cavaliers’ hard work can’t be ignored. This game was won in the trenches, as the Cavaliers outmuscled, outsmarted, and outworked Immaculata.
In terms of outmuscling, the Cavaliers were superior in winning ground balls and faceoffs. Cabrini outscored the Mighty Macs in both categories by an impressive total of 89-28. When it came to outsmarting Immaculata, the Cavaliers were tacticians in clearing the ball out of the defensive zone and causing turnovers.
Cabrini was a perfect 20 of 20 in clearing the defensive zone, as opposed to Immaculata who garnered just a 41% clear rating.
Cabrini also caused 28 turnovers as opposed to Immaculata’s 12, setting up the Cavalier offense, and attackmen such as Bolton, for success.
“It felt great to have the kind of game I did today, and to see all my teammates play as well as they did during Senior Day was awesome. Love that everybody ate out there,” Bolton said.
What’s next for the Cavs?
With this victory, Cabrini improved to 10-3 on the year, and are undefeated in conference play with a record of 4-0. The Cavaliers can only hope to ride this momentum to a fourth straight AEC title, and NCAA tournament success.
The team is back in action this Friday, April 21, as they travel to Maryland to take on the number-two ranked team in the nation, Salisbury University.
Cabrini will be looking to avenge last year’s loss in the third round of the NCAA tournament which came at the hands of the Sea Gulls.
