FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Men's Lacrosse makes the quick trip north to Amherst on Saturday to challenge UMass. Opening faceoff on Garber Field is slated for 3:30 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
The sixth lead change in last Saturday's CAA clash between Fairfield and host Drexel proved decisive as the defending CAA Champion Dragons outlasted the Stags, 19-18, in Philadelphia.
Taylor Strough matched his career high with six goals for the Stags.
In addition to Strough's six goals,
Mike Drake added a five-point day with two goals and three assists.
Max Paparozzi notched two goals and two helpers, and
Jack McKenna potted his seventh hat trick of the season. In his return to the attack,
Bryce Ford scored two goals with one assist.
Kyle Borda was Fairfield's top facilitator with three assists.
The defensive effort was led by a strong showing from the man-down unit, which held Drexel scoreless on five man-up opportunities.
Braden Lynch corralled four ground balls with a caused turnover on close defense as the Stags pressured the Dragons into 24 turnovers.
THIRTY GOAL DUO
Taylor Strough and
Jack McKenna lead the Stags with 36 and 34 goals, respectively. With three games remaining in the 2022 regular season, McKenna and Strough are already Fairfield's first 30-goal duo since Colin Burke scored 46 goals and TJ Neubauer netted 31 in the 2016 campaign.
Both have cracked Fairfield's single-season top 10 in goals, which is led by Hall of Famer Spencer Steele's 48 markers in the 1999 campaign.
Strough and McKenna enter the weekend as one of three 70-goals duos in the nation alongside John Piatelli and CJ Kirst of Cornell (74) and Brennan O'Neill and Dyson Williams of Duke (78).
THE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS MINUTEMEN
UMass holds an overtime win over Delaware and a 12-9 loss at Towson to sit at 1-1 in CAA play as a part of a 6-4 overall mark. The Stags and Minutemen have not played any common opponents in 2022.
Gabriel Procyk leads the Minutemen with 20 goals this season, while Kevin Tobin has dished out a team-best 15 assists along with 14 goals to rack up a team-leading 29 points. A quartet of UMass attackers have scored 12 goals to complete a balanced attack that ranks fourth in the CAA with 11.70 goals per game.
Saturday's game will be a matchup of the league's top two faceoff men in Fairfield's
Frankie Labetti (.554) and UMass's Caleb Hammett (.586).
Defensively, the Minutemen are second in the conference ceding 10.70 goals per game. Matt Knote slots second in the CAA with a .533 save percentage and leads the conference with a 10.50 goals-against average.
ALL-TIME SERIES
UMass holds at 13-4 lead in the all-time series and a 6-2 advantage since the clubs became CAA foes in the 2015 season. The Minutemen were Fairfield's challenger in both their first-ever NCAA postseason appearance (2002) and first-ever CAA tournament trip (2015). The clubs were also ECAC Lacrosse League foes from 2006-09.
FRANKIE ON THE FACEOFF
Frankie Labetti continues to climb the all-time ledger as one of the top faceoff men in Fairfield history. With 472 faceoff wins, Labetti has surpassed Michael Roe (2012-14) for third all-time. He has also nabbed 276 ground balls in his career, trailing only the 290 collected by NCAA and MLL faceoff legend Peter Vlahakis from 2001-04. With a .545 win percentage on the draw, Labetti is chasing the second-place mark of .555 set by his predecessor and former teammate, Will Fox. Vlahakis owns that mark as well with a .627 win percentage en route to his program best 620 faceoff victories.
This season, Labetti ranks second in the CAA with a .554 win percentage while leading the league and ranking ninth nationally with 8.00 ground balls per outing.
STROUGH IN THE CENTURY CLUB
With five goals in the win over Quinnipiac,
Taylor Strough became the seventh member of the Stags' 100 Goal Club. He has since reached 114 to claim third all-time on the ledger,. Strough is also ranked 10th all-time in points at Fairfield at 138.
Spencer Steele is Fairfield's all-time leader in goals with 147 and Matt Callaghan tops the charts in points with 247.
THE MAYOR
Fairfield, Connecticut native
Jack McKenna ranks fourth in the CAA and 22nd in the nation with 3.09 goals per game. Among freshmen, he is the nation's fourth-leading goal scorer. McKenna is a three-time CAA Rookie of the Week and has scored multiple goals in all 11 games this season, including seven hat tricks. His 34 goals are the most scored by a Fairfield freshman since Colin Burke netted 46 on his way to 63 points and CAA Rookie and co-Player of the Year accolades in the 2016 season.
SPECIAL TEAMS MAKE SPECIAL PLAYS
Fairfield was a perfect 3-for-3 on man-up opportunities in the win at Sacred Heart with
Taylor Strough getting a pair of extra-man goals and
Mike Drake scoring one on the EMO. The Stags' special teams were also pivotal on the defensive end, holding Sacred Heart without a goal on seven extra-man chances, including a 6-on-4 opportunity late in the game. Fairfield also posted a perfect man-down showing on April 9 againt Drexel, holding the Dragons scoreless on five EMO tries
UP NEXT
Action returns to Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium next Saturday, April 23 for a 3:30 p.m. visit from Towson.
