STONY BROOK, N.Y.—The UMass Lowell men's lacrosse team (0-6, 0-1 America East) faced its first conference setback Wednesday afternoon, falling 17-9 to Stony Brook (5-2, 1-0 AE) at Lavalle Stadium.
 
Historically proficient against the Seawolves, graduate student Domenic Giachello (Somers, Conn.) led the River Hawks with four points off a trio of goals and one assist. Junior Brian Wiles (Longmeadow, Mass.) registered a multi-goal game behind Giachello, adding two of his own in the fourth quarter. Junior Nick Harvath (Whitmore Lake, Mich.) and graduate student Kyle Laforge (Tyngsboro, Mass.) picked up multi-point games with a pair of helpers apiece. Harvath's two-assist outing marked a season high for the midfielder in the statistical category.
 
Sophomore Anthony Mancino (Holbrook, N.Y.) played a complete game in the cage for the River Hawks, stopping a career-high 17 shots.  

"Liam [McDonough] did a great job on faceoffs, and Anthony [Mancino] was strong in the cage," commented Head Coach Ed Stephenson. "We have to get off to a stronger start. We had too many turnovers on the offensive end in the first half. We created some really good scoring opportunities in the second half, but we need to finish at a higher percentage."
 
Stony Brook opened up scoring with a pair of goals early on from Dylan Pallonetti and Noah Armitage to run out to a 2-0 lead just two minutes into the action.
 
Giachello stunted the early Seawolves run at 10:33 when he fired in the first of the day for the River Hawks to slice the lead in half. Key tallies from junior Conor Foley (Walpole, Mass.) and senior Dakota Clark (Bedford, N.H.) kept UMass Lowell right on Stony Brook's heels as the teams traded blows over the next eight minutes.
 
A rip down the center from Giachello off the feed from Laforge locked the score up at 5-5 with just two minutes left in the first. A final notch from the Seawolves handed the lead back to the home team as the action moved to the second.
 
Stony Brook maintained its scoring momentum throughout the second, adding five to their total to move to a 9-4 margin. Senior Liam McDonough (Groton, Mass.) halted the bleeding with 1:43 left in the half off a dominant faceoff win. Scooping the groundball, McDonough darted to the cage and launched one past Anthony Palma to send the River Hawks to the break down 10-5.
 
An opening tally from the Seawolves to open the second half kept UMass Lowell at a distance. Freshman Khairi Sears (Columbus, Ohio) retaliated a minute later, firing one in off the pass from Laforge to keep the River Hawks in range.
 
A four-goal run across the end of the third and top of the fourth kept Stony Brook in the lead as they pushed out to a nine-goal margin.
 
Not done yet, the River Hawks re-invigorated their offense late in the game. Wiles kickstarted the fourth-quarter run, grabbing the pass from Foley to net UMass Lowell's second man-up goal of the day. Giachello followed shortly after with an unassisted tally to net his first hat trick of the season to bring the River Hawks within seven. Wiles bookended the three-goal streak with 4:34 to go to pick up his second of the day, but a final pair of tallies for the Seawolves ultimately dealt UMass Lowell the 17-9 loss.
 
The River Hawks head back to the Mill City to host No. 12/13 Jacksonville on Saturday, March 19, at 11:30 a.m.