FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Mike Drake scored a man-up goal in the waning seconds of the third quarter on Tuesday evening, sending Fairfield University Men's Lacrosse into the fourth frame tied with visit St. John's, 11-11. But the Red Storm put together a 6-0 run to open the stanza, keeping the Stags off the board for over 12 minutes, to leave Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium with a 17-14 decision.
 
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Stags, who wrap-up the non-conference portion of the schedule at 5-4. St. John's improves to 2-6 and heads to #13/14 Jacksonville this weekend before beginning Big East play in April.
 
"Our takeaway from this one is that we need to be focused and adhere to our details," said Head Coach Andrew Baxter. "Every opponent is going to be prepared and has talented players, and we need to put ourselves in a position to be successful every time we step of the field."
 
Reigning CAA Rookie of the Week Jack McKenna paced the attack with a four-goal outing. McKenna has scored at least two goals in every game of the campaign and now leads the Stags with 29 markers to his name. Max Paparozzi, Mike Drake and Kyle Borda all had multi-goal games with two apiece.
 
Rounding out the scoring were Josh Demko, Dean Ford, Malcolm MacInnes and Luke Okupski with one apiece. Demko's tally was the first of his career, and the rookie also doled out two assists for a career-best three points on the day.
 
Paparozzi, Patrick Drake, Taylor Strough and Frankie Labetti all added assists. Strough's helper accounted for his team-leading 34th point of the season.
 
Labetti also kept the Fairfield offense on the field with an 18-for-29 day on the draw. Labetti came away with 13 ground balls as a part of his performance at the X.
 
Defensively, Zack Antoniou had two ground balls and two caused turnovers, and Braden Lynch collected four grounders on close defense. Two-way midfielder Ryan Lancaster also picked up two ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers. In the cage, James Corasaniti made nine saves.
 
The Stags started the scoring with a Borda goal less than 90 seconds into the contest, and then used a 3-0 run to surge in front. The stretch featured markers from Dean Ford, Paparozzi (man-up) and Okupski to stake the hosts to a 4-1 lead with 5:41 to go in the quarter. However, the Red Storm got one back before the end of the frame, then netted five of the game's six second-quarter goals to surge in front 7-5 at the break. McKenna's goal with 10:38 on the clock was Fairfield's lone marker of the second stanza.
 
The Stags quickly knotted the game coming out of the break. First, McKenna came out of the faceoff scrum with a ground ball and took it himself for a goal, then Mike Drake converted a Paparozzi dish in transition to tie it up at 7-7 less than two minutes into the quarter. After the Red Storm regained its two-goal cushion, Demko and McKenna went back-to-back to tie it again at 9-9. Once more, St. John's rebuilt a lead at 11-9 as the clock ticked under five minutes to go in the third. Borda's second of the day made it an 11-10 game, and Drake's man-up goal off a Demko feed tied it at 11-11 with three seconds remaining in the period.
 
That goal, however, would be Fairfield's last for 12:27 of clock time, as St. John's opened the fourth frame with four goals in under three minutes, including two on a non-releasable Fairfield penalty, and then added two more to pile up a 17-11 advantage with 4:24 to go.

The Stags did not go quietly as Paparozzi banged home a man-up goal with 2:26 to go, and McKenna scored just seven seconds later from a Labetti feed after winning the draw. MacInnes added a rebound and put-back to cut the deficit to 17-14 with 1:23 to go, but after Labetti on the ensuing draw, St. John's goalkeeper Kaden Quirk came up with the last two of his 17 stops to close the door on the Fairfield comeback.
 
In addition to Quirk's big day in the cage, Dylan Willis helped fuel the Red Storm with two goals and five assists, while Brian Kelly added four goals and a pair of helpers.
 
The Stags will now have a 10-day hiatus from competition before opening the CAA slate on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium next Saturday, April 2 against Hofstra. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
 
"We'll take a couple days to rest and recover – I think that's big for us after playing seven games in the last month – we'll look in the mirror as individuals and collectively, and then get back to work," Baxter said. "I think having this time to focus on us will be a good thing as we head into the CAA portion of the schedule."
 
The Pride are currently 4-5 on the season and will travel to Providence this Saturday before coming to Connecticut the following weekend to meet the Stags.