LOWELL, Mass.—Despite a five-goal fourth quarter, the UMass Lowell men's lacrosse team (1-3, 1-2 AE) came up short, falling 16-9 against America East foe Stony Brook (4-3, 2-1 AE) Saturday at Cushing Field.
 
Senior Jake Lining (Rochester, Mich.) led the River Hawks in the outing, registering a goal and three assists for a team and season-high four points against the Seawolves. Lining now leads the team in assists (5) and points (10). Meanwhile, senior Domenic Giachello (Somers, Conn.) extended his scoring streak, putting up two goals and assist for the second consecutive game this season.
 
"They are a very talented team. Possession wise, they really dominated on the faceoffs. With a team like that, we play a lot of defense, and offense has to got to possess the ball a little better than we did," said Head Coach Ed Stephenson. "We were impatient because we didn't have the ball a lot. We need to be a little stronger mentally in that aspect to give our defense a breather when they play so much. The game is about possession, and we were really on the short end possession wise."
 
The River Hawks struck first in today's conference tilt, with sophomore Nick Harvath (Whitmore Lake, Mich.) finding the back of the cage just 55 seconds into play. Stony Brook swung momentum in their favor for the remainder of the quarter, scoring four unanswered to claim a 4-1 lead.
 
The Seawolves kept their offensive pressure going with an early goal to open the second quarter. UMass Lowell responded with a goal of their own from sophomore Conor Foley (Walpole, Mass.), bursting from behind the cage to find the feed from junior Sean Parker (Flemington, N.J.) and cut the Stony Brook lead down to 5-2. The Seawolves went on another five-goal run over the next 10 minutes of action, before graduate student Dylan Rhatigan (Holbrook, N.Y.) stifled Stony Brook's offensive burst with a long goal to close out the quarter down 10-3.
 
Stony Brook maintained possession for the better part of the third, tallying another four goals to widen their margin to 14-3 over the River Hawks. As time expired in the frame, junior Dakota Clark (Bedford, N.H.) sparked UMass Lowell's late-game push with a goal off the connection from Lining behind the net.
 
Lining continued the River Hawks' scoring drive, finding the back of the net for his lone goal of the outing from Giachello with 10:27 on the clock. After a Seawolves rebuttal by Dylan Pallonetti, Giachello would net his own, this time off the pass from Lining. Fighting to narrow the Stony Brook lead, UMass Lowell netted three consecutive goals from Parker, senior Kyle Laforge (Tyngsboro, Mass.) and Giachello, but unfortunately came up short with a final score of 16-9 against the Seawolves.
 
In the cage, sophomore Max Christides (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) made a career-high 19 saves, with eight coming in the first quarter. Freshman Anthony Mancino (Holbrook, N.Y.) also saw action, allowing just one goal in his third appearance for the River Hawks.
 
The River Hawks continue conference play next Saturday, March 20, hosting NJIT at Cushing Field. Faceoff is set for 3:30 p.m.