Men's Lacrosse Remains Unbeaten at Home with 15-14 Victory Over Villanova

Tuesday, March 1

Providence, R.I.

4 p.m.

Brown University

3-1 (0-0Ivy League)

Villanova

2-2 (0-0Big East)

Villanova

Brown

Photo by: David Silverman Photography

Men's Lacrosse Remains Unbeaten at Home with 15-14 Victory Over Villanova

3/1/2022 7:16:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Brown Bears (3-1, 0-0 Ivy League) captured a 15-14 non-conference win over the Villanova Wildcats (2-2, 0-0 Big East) Tuesday afternoon at Stevenson-Pincince Field, led by Devon McLane's nine-point outburst and Brian Antonelli's career-high five goals.

"I'm really happy for the guys, they earned it," said head coach Mike Daly. "It's a game of lacrosse – 60 minutes against a good team. For whatever reason we started losing some faceoffs then they started scoring, similar to that Vermont game. They're good teams and when you let up for that second, they make you pay. The guys made the plays when we needed them to and in a 60-minute game they all weren't perfect, but luckily, we put enough of them together to get the win."

Antonelli scored the afternoon's first goal and Griffin King made it 2-0 for the Bears five minutes into the opening quarter. Following three Villanova goals, Reed Moshyedi and Antonelli put the Bears back in the lead with goals to end the quarter.

After the Wildcats tied the game at 4-4 to start the second quarter, the Bears ripped off five straight goals and out-scored Villanova 7-3 in the frame. Antonelli added a pair of goals to complete the first half hat trick, the first of his career.

"Brian has done a great job, he's having one of those senior years that you just wish for every kid, frankly," said Daly. "He puts himself in good positions, early on they were riding us so it really got him free and in good positions to score, I'm proud of his effort.

The third quarter was much the same for Brown as they outscored Villanova 4-3 to take a 15-9 lead into the fourth quarter. McLane scored his third and fourth goals of the game to record his fourth hat trick in as many games to begin the season.

Villanova pressed in the fourth quarter and began to chip away at Brown's lead with three goals in the first five minutes of the quarter. Jordan Coppola had much to do with the momentum shift as he went 6-for-6 on faceoffs in the final quarter.

The Wildcats cut Brown's lead to two with 5:57 remaining as Matt Licata scored in transition. Both teams had offensive possessions from that point, Brett Baskin's sixth goal of the afternoon with 37 seconds remaining cut Brown's lead to a single goal, the smallest margin since the second quarter.

Brown's defense stood tall on Villanova's final possession as Luke Keating's turnover in the final seconds sealed the win for the Bears.

GAME NOTES

Antonelli's five goals and six points marked career-highs for the senior.
McLane is the first Bear to finish a game with nine points since Dylan Molloy '17 recorded seven goals and 10 points in a win over Holy Cross on March 21, 2017. He's the first Bear to finish with five assists since February 16, 2019, when Luke McCaleb '21 tallied five in Brown's win over Quinnipiac.
Brown's Connor Theriault and Villanova's Will Vitton both finished the game with 12 saves.
At the X, Matthew Gunty finished the game with 15 faceoff wins in 31 attempts along with seven ground balls. Coppola finished 16-for-29 at the X with seven ground balls.
The Wildcats finished the game with a slight edge over the Bears in shots (41-39). Brown finished with more ground balls (30-29) and more turnovers (22-20).
Brown was 19-for-24 on clears while Villanova was 17-for-21.
Both teams had three man-up opportunities in the game. Villanova scored twice while Brown scored once.
With the win, the Bears now own a 7-3 record against feline opponents under Daly.

Brown heads across town to take on the Providence College Friars (2-2, 0-0 Big East) on Saturday (Mar. 5) at Chapey Field.

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