April 7, 2001

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Box Score

Fairfield, CT - On Saturday, April 7, the Villanova men's lacrosse team traveled to the University of Fairfield and attempted to end a season long drought on the road. Unfortunately for the Wildcats they fell victim to a late Stag surge and a game-high four goals by Fairfield sophomore Matt Buecker to drop an 11-9 heartbreaking decision. The loss spoiled the homecoming of Andrew Bogle (Wilton, CT/Wilton) and Jesse Ford (Wilton, CT/Wilton), both who grew up in nearby Wilton. With the loss, Villanova falls to 4-5 on the season, while Fairfield improves to 5-4 overall.

The scoring got started quickly as Fairfield's Peter Vlahakis won the face-off and raced the length of the field. Vlahakis then turned and fired a pass to Keith Griffin who connected on the game's first goal only 15 seconds into the game. Villanova would recover quickly by taking complete control of the game for the next 12 minutes. During that span Villanova tallied three times, including the first two goals from junior attackman Peter Franchetti (Gwynedd Valley, PA/Germantown Academy). The third Wildcat goal came courtesy of Bogle who ripped a shot by Stag goalkeeper C.J. Kemp off a feed from Michael Holloway (Malvern, PA/Malvern). For Bogle, the goal gave him his 100th career point at Villanova with 59 goals and 41 assists. Fairfield would get two quick tallies within a minute and 31-second span to tie the score at 3-3 heading into the second quarter.

In the second, Villanova's defense took control and then the extra man offense responded. Villanova's stellar and emotionally charged defense did not allow a goal in the entire quarter. The Wildcats then took advantage of two Stag penalties by connecting on two extra man goals. The goals were scored in an identically fashion as freshman David Cacciabeve (Boonton Township, Delbarton) swung a pass right to Bogle who fired both shots directly over the head of Kemp.

Trailing 5-3 at half, Fairfield came out strong and tallied first on an unassisted goal by freshman Tom Werney. The Wildcats fought back with their sixth goal of the game when Randall Calvert (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial) got his first tally of the afternoon on a pass from Brian Marks (Glenmoore, PA/Downingtown). The Stags would tie the game up with 7:22 remaining in the third after two goals in under a minute. Their first tally would come on the extra man off the stick of Rob Scipioni, cutting the lead to 6-5. Next, Fairfield's Matt Buecker scored his first of a game-high four goals unassisted. With the game tied 6-6, Villanova turned to senior leader Tim Ristau (Fayetteville, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt). With time running down and Villanova in the midst of over a five-minute possession, freshman Matt Lucas (Fairfax, VA/Paul VI) let loose a shot from about 15 feet out. The rebound came off of Kemp and bounced in front of the net. Ristau jumped on the ball and fired it past Kemp with 1.7 seconds remaining to give Villanova a 7-6 lead after three quarters.

In the fourth, Fairfield got five goals to Villanova's two to earn the victory. Stag junior Marc Torrey got the first goal of the quarter again after a face-off win and pass by Vlahakis. Buecker would get his second goal, again unassisted, a minute and 37 seconds later. Trailing 8-7, Calvert responded for the Wildcats getting his second goal of the afternoon, this time unassisted. Fairfield's Peter Shanley got the Stags the lead back with his first goal unassisted. Again Calvert would respond for Villanova. The junior netted his season-high for goals in a game with his third tally assisted by Brian Marks. With the score knotted at 9-9, the Stags put Villanova away with excellent defense and goalkeeping. In addition they got two goals from Buecker, his third and fourth, to secure the 11-9 win.

C.J. Kemp earned the win for Fairfield by recording 18 saves. Matt Wilk took the loss for Villanova after tallying three saves. Bogle scored three times and added an assist to surpass the 100-point mark for his career in his return home. Ford, also returning home, played stellar defensively in front of friends and relatives. Villanova will be in action next when they battle they University of Denver in Denver, Colorado at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 12th.