Box Score

TROY, NY (March 25, 2009) -- The Vassar men's lacrosse team fell behind 11-0 to Rensselaer in the opening game of Liberty League play Wednesday afternoon, and despite scoring six goals over in the last two periods, fell to the Red Hawks, 14-6. Sophomore midfielder Ryan Hart (Smithtown, NY/Smithtown West) tallied three of Vassar's goals.

The Brewers dip to 3-4, 0-1 in the Liberty League. RPI improves to 3-3, 1-0. Vassar will continue Liberty League play on Saturday, hosting Clarkson at 2:00 p.m. at Weinberg Field. Rensselaer is back in action on Saturday when it hosts Hamilton at 1:00 p.m.

After a slow start to the game, junior Paul Cerone (Ridgefield, CT/Ridgefield) and sophomore Conor Chocheles (Babylon, NY/Babylon) got things going in the final 3:55 as each player tallied two goals for a 4-0 lead after the first quarter.

The Red Hawks maintained momentum in the second stanza as Cerone and Chocheles each tallied in the first five minutes and junior Brett Evans (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) added a pair of goals to give Rensselaer a daunting 9-0 lead through the first 30 minutes of the game.

Freshman Andrew Miller (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) pushed the homestanding Red Hawks' lead to 10-0 with his second goal of the game at 14:02 of the third quarter. Despite an 11-goal advantage for RPI, Vassar found its way onto the scoreboard as senior Dan Feinberg (North Haven, CT/North Haven) scored the first of his two goals at the 9-minute mark.

Vassar continued to chip away at the RPI lead over the final six minutes of the period as junior# Nick Cardillo# (Honeoye Falls, NY/McQuaid Jesuit) and Feinberg each tallied to make it a 13-3 score at the end of three quarters.

The Brewers continued to press in the final stanza as sophomore Ryan Hart (Smithtown, NY/Smithtown West) scored two of his three goals within the first five minutes of the quarter to cut the Vassar deficit to eight (13-5).

Miller added his final tally at the 5:44 mark and Hart scored with 3:06 remaining to close out the game's scoring.

In addition to Miller, who had three goals and two assists, Cerone added three goals while Chocheles and Evans each had three tallies and an assist. Freshman Austin Ray (Sandwich, MA/Tabor Academy) added a goal and an assist while fellow rookie Brian Larkin (Florham Park, NJ/Seton Hall Prep) had a goal.

For Vassar, sophomore goalie Alex Tice (Oakland, CA/St. Ignatius Prep) made seven saves in the first 30 minutes before junior Ed Pappo (Malvern, PA/Conestoga) finished the game with five stops.

RPI, which held a 36-26 advantage in shots for the game, saw three goaltenders see action between the pipes. Senior starter Ryan DeJordy (Albany, NY/Columbia) played 45:00 and made nine saves before giving way to freshman Jon Yen (Short Hills, NJ/Millburn) and junior Grant Kovach
(Sparks, MD/Mt. Hebron). Neither made any saves.