Freshman Ryan Mulford netted an unassisted goal with 36 seconds to play to give the Fairfield University men’s lacrosse team a 10-9 win over ECAC Lacrosse League foe University of Massachusetts on Tuesday.  The win snapped an eight-game slide for the Stags, as they improve to 4-8 overall and 2-4 in ECAC play.  The Minutemen fall to 5-7 on the year and 3-3 in conference action.

Trailing 3-1 early in the second quarter Fairfield answered with a 6-0 run from a Dan Holub goal with 93 seconds remaining in the second quarter until a Chris Ajemian tally with 5:06 remaining in the third quarter, to take a 7-3 advantage.  UMass would score the next two goals, to close to within 7-5 with 13:02 to play.

Doug Kuring would give the Stags some breathing room with a tally with 10:38 remaining, but Tim Balise scored four of the next five goals in the game for the Minutemen, with a Todd Baxter goal in the middle, for a 9-9 tie with 1:41 to play. 

The Stags win over UMass is the first in the program’s history, snapping a five-game losing streak.

Nick Lattimore, who scored the Stags first goal of the game, and Baxter each tallied tow goals to lead the Stags.  Travis Nelson had two assists, while Ajemian had two points on a goal and an assist.

Senior Jeff Cilente, making his third career start, earned his first win for the Stags.  He made eight saves, including three in the fourth quarter, to preserve the victory.  Doc Schneider made 11 saves in net for UMass, but none in the fourth quarter, to take the loss.

Andrew Urquhart took each of the face-offs for the Stags, going 11-21 on the game, with two ground balls.

The Minutemen opened the scoring with a pair of goals in the first five minutes of play.  Nick Lattimore put the Stags on the board with his first tally of the season with 1:29 to play in the quarter, to make it 2-1 to start the second period.  The Minutemen scored first in the second quarter, going ahead 3-1 at the 13:15 mark, and that was the last tally by either team until there was 93 seconds left in the half.   With an extra-man opportunity, Holub got the Stags back within one goal, netting a pass from Matt Plominski, making the halftime score 3-2.

Fairfield will conclude the 2008 campaign on Saturday, traveling to St. John’s for an ECAC Lacrosse League contest, set to begin at 1 p.m.