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The Fairfield University men's lacrosse team plays its final home game of the regular season as it hosts ECAC Lacrosse League foe Air Force on Saturday at 2 p.m. on Lessing Field. The Stags are 6-5 on the year and 2-2 in league play, while the Falcons are 6-5 overall and 1-3 in conference action.
Prior to the game the Stags will honor the five seniors: Marshall Johnson, Dan Niebler, Matt Rubertone, Sam Snow and Gordie Wells. The group is on the verge of being just the second Fairfield lacrosse class to leave the program without a losing season on their resumes in program history. The 34 wins that they have helped the Stags to over the past four seasons, including a program-record 12 last spring, is the second most of any graduating class. In addition, they have played for the ECAC title in each of the past two seasons and helped Fairfield into that national conversation, and the longest stretch in school history of inclusion in the national coaches poll.
Fairfield and Air Force are meeting for the ninth time with the Stags leading the series 6-2. Tristan Sperry had four goals as the Stags defeated Air Force in Colorado Springs last season, 12-10. Fairfield is 4-0 all-time at home against Air Force, including a 6-4 win in 2011 on Alumni Field. The Stags are 3-0 against Air Force in ECAC games, with the contests being decided by a combined five goals. The two teams first met in 2001 as members of the Great West Lacrosse League, with the Stags winning 10-7 at home. Air Force won 8-5 in 2002 and again, 12-6, in 2004, around a Stag home win, 15-8, in 2003. Fairfield won in 2005, 10-9 and has four consecutive wins in the series.
Loyola is the only ECAC team that has clinched a berth in the May 2-4 ECAC Championship at Hobart College. Six other teams, including the Stags, are alive for the other three tournament spots, with only Michigan having been eliminated from postseason contention. A Fairfield win on Saturday would eliminate Air Force and the Stags need at least two more wins to secure a spot, and potentially need to win all three remaining games.
Fairfield is 4-2 this season at home and in five seasons under Andy Copelan are 21-12 in games played on Alumni Field and Lessing Field. Last season the Stags were 5-2 at home. The Stags have secured a winning record for the home portion of the schedule this spring.
Over the first seven games of the year the Stags won just 37.2 percent (54-145) at the face-off X. In only one of those games, Hofstra, did the Stags have a positive winning percentage, going 8-14, and reached double digit wins (11) just once, versus UMBC. Over the last four games the Stags have nearly doubled their win total, with 53, and are winning at a clip of 58.2 percent, 53-91, with at least 11 wins in each of those games.
The Stags have scored 14 times in its last two games and handed out just two assists in those losses, a 14% assist rate. Over the first nine games of the season the Stags assisted on 52 percent of their goals, 44-85.
Air Force enters Saturday's game having won consecutive games and at 6-5 overall and 1-3 in ECAC play. Two of the Falcons league losses have been by one goal, 11-10 in overtime at Denver, and 11-10 at Bellarmine. Mike Crampton has a team-best 31 points, and is tied with Tommy McKee (27 points) for the team lead with 27 goals. Keith Dreyer has handed out 14 assists to lead the team in that category. Erik Smith, who has scored 21 points, has won a team-best 59 face-offs this spring with a 48.4% win percentage. Bryan Price has won 60 percent of the face-offs he has taken, going 50-83 in his eight games. Austin Fox has played 562 of 601 minutes in goal and has stopped 103 shots. He begins play on Saturday with a .531 save percentage and a 9.70 GAA. Air Force is -6 in ground balls, 304-298, on the year and is -2 in turnovers, 153-151.
