AMHERST, Mass. – A defensive unit that ceded just three goals after halftime and a five-goal outburst in the third quarter from Mike Drake guided Fairfield University Men's Lacrosse to a 16-13 come-from-behind win over host UMass in CAA action on Saturday. Dylan Johannes added his first career hat trick as a part of Fairfield's man-up unit in the victory.
 
With the win, the Stags improve to 7-5 overall and 2-1 in the CAA.  The Stags are tied with Drexel and Towson – next Saturday's visitor to Rafferty Stadium – atop the CAA standings. UMass falls to 6-5 on the year with a 1-2 conference tally. The win snaps a five-game losing streak for the Stags against the Minutemen.
 
"This was a great team win. One of our keys was to keep it simple, and I thought we did a good job of simplifying all aspects of the game individually and as units," said Head Coach Andrew Baxter. "We knew we would have to scrap and make gritty 'Fairfield Lacrosse' plays for 60 minutes. We did a good job of competing for the whole game – we didn't get down on ourselves when we fell behind and we didn't get complacent when we had the lead."
 
All of Drake's five goals came in the third quarter, which was a 6-0 stanza in favor of the Stags that turned a 10-7 halftime deficit into a 13-10 advantage. Johannes' tallies were also all in the second half and all came as a part of the man-up unit, which went 3-for-3 after halftime and 3-for-4 for the game. The Stags also got two goals apiece from Kyle Borda and Jack McKenna with one tally apiece for Taylor Strough and Max Paparozzi.

Strough – Fairfield's leader with 37 goals this spring – served in a facilitator role today and dished out a career-high three assists. Bryce Ford added four helpers working primarily from behind the cage, Paparozzi had two, and Borda distributed his team-best 19th assist
 
The defensive effort was highlighted by a stretch of 32:02 where UMass was held without a goal and the Stags put together a 9-0 run that flipped a 10-6 deficit midway through the second quarter to a commanding 15-10 advantage with under seven minutes to play. Fairfield forced nine turnovers and James Corasaniti made nine of his 12 saves during that span to help facilitate the scoring outburst on the attacking side of the field. Luke Okupski racked up five ground balls with two caused turnovers with Zack Antoniou, Jon Wheat and Evan Keiser each notching a caused turnover.
 
The Stags raced out to a 3-0 lead on back-to-back goals from Lancaster followed by McKenna's first of the day to induce a quick timeout by 28th-year UMass Head Coach Greg Cannella. The Minutemen responded with the next four goals before Borda rattled the cage knotted the contest at 4-4. The squads continued to trade goals – with Strough accounting for another Stags' tally – as UMass struck last with only 16 seconds to play in the stanza to take a 6-5 lead after 15 minutes of action.
 
The Minutemen converted a man-up goal 27 seconds into the second quarter to build a two-goal lead and, after a Paparozzi tally, added three more to build their largest lead of the afternoon at 10-6. But Kevin Tobin's goal at 8:52 in the second – his second man-up marker during the same two-minute locked-in penalty – would be the last UMass goal for more than 32 minutes of clock time.
 
The Fairfield comeback started less than two minutes later on McKenna's second goal, which proved to be the final marker of the half as the Stags headed to locker room facing a 10-7 deficit.
 
Drake took over the game in the third quarter, scoring back-to-back goals to cut the margin to 10-9 with 11:26 left in the frame. After Johannes' first man-up tally tied the game, Drake netted a "natural" hat trick with three straight in the back half of the period to send the contest into the fourth frame with the Stags now leading, 13-10.
 
After nearly five minutes of scoreless lacrosse to start the period, Johannes converted again on the man-up and Borda scored his second to run the lead to 15-10 with 7:50 left. Exactly one minute later, Tobin – the last UMass player to score a goal 32 minutes early – ended their scoring drought and cut the lead to 15-11 with 6:50 to go.
 
The Stags responded just over a minute later as Johannes completed his man-up hat trick. The Minutemen would tack on two more down the stretch, but the margin was more than enough for the Stags to leave Garber Field with a decisive 16-13 victory.
 
Tobin led the UMass scoring effort with five goals and an assist. Logan Liljeberg also had six points with a hat trick and three assists. Matt Knote made 17 saves in the home cage.
 
The Stags will wrap-up the regular season with back-to-back home games on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium beginning next Saturday, April 23 at 3:30 p.m. against Towson. The Tigers suffered their first CAA loss this afternoon – a 12-11 setback at Delaware – to drop to 5-7 overall and 2-1 in conference play.