FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Visiting Delaware scored the only two goals of the fourth quarter to break a 12-12 deadlock with Fairfield University Men's Lacrosse and escape Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium with a 14-12 decision.
Frankie Labetti capped his career with 10 ground balls to set a new program record.
The Stags conclude their season with a record of 7-7 overall and 2-3 in the CAA. Delaware nabs a share of the regular season title and top seed in next week's CAA Championship, improving to 9-5 overall and a 3-2 in league play.
The top three CAA teams (Delaware, Towson, UMass) all finished at 3-2 while the next three (Drexel, Fairfield, Hofstra) were all 2-3 in conference action. Eight of the 15 CAA games played during the regular season were tied at some point in the fourth quarter, including three of Fairfield's five conference clashes.
"I just told the guys in the locker room that I'm proud of the work they've put in and the mentality of playing one possession and one play at a time," said Head Coach
Andrew Baxter. "That was very evident today when we fell behind. We didn't play to the scoreboard or play to a specific outcome; we tackled the play in front of us, and that put us in a position to win the game. We're going to continue to learn from these experiences and continue to get better every day as individuals and as a team."
In today's game, Labetti went 12-for-22 at the faceoff X on his way to 10 ground balls. His 10 pickups surpass the career record of 290 established by Fairfield and Major League Lacrosse faceoff legend Peter Vlahakis. Labetti also moved into second place behind Vlahakis in career faceoff wins with 504, passing his predecessor Will Fox who finished his standout career with 503.
In addition, Labetti's 106 ground balls this season are the most ever for a Fairfield faceoff man and second overall behind Brian McLane's 117 grounders in 1999. His 181 faceoff wins this spring are second only to Vlahakis' 197 draws in the 2004 campaign.
"Frankie has been incredible for us. I can't say enough about how important he was to our success this season and what he's done for this program over the last five years," noted Baxter.
On the offensive end of the field,
Bryce Ford set the pace with a hat trick and an assist for four points.
Max Paparozzi added two goals and an assist and
Jack McKenna netted two goals. McKenna finishes his rookie campaign with 43 goals in 14 games. He is the first Stag to ever average a hat trick for a season with a program-record and CAA-leading 3.07 goals per game. His 43 goals put him three shy of the freshman record held by Colin Burke and five short of the overall record of 48 set by Spencer Steele in 1999.
Fairfield's first midfield unit of
Mike Drake,
Taylor Strough and
Kyle Borda all posted one goal and one assists, and a pair of defensive players rounded out the scoring as
Matt Rice and
Rory Thompson each put in a marker. Thompson's scoop and score on a loose ball in front of the cage was his first career tally.
Strough's goal was the 117th of his career, finishing third all-time at Fairfield and tied for sixth all-time in points with 144.
Defensively, Strough, Borda and
Braden Lynch each had a pair of caused turnovers, and Lynch and Rice nabbed three ground balls apiece.
James Corasaniti made seven saves in the cage.
Delaware was bolstered by goalkeeper Matt Kilkeary's 19 saves, including all eight shots that he faced after the Stags scored the equalizer with 3:40 left in the third quarter. On attack for the Blue Hens, Tye Kurtz posted four goals and two assists with Mark Bieda and Mike Robinson each netting a hat trick.
Prior to today's game, Fairfield celebrated seniors Borda and Corasaniti as well as graduate students Drake, Strough and Labetti.
Fairfield's 7-7 record is a five-win improvement from 2021's 2-9 campaign. The Stags also won a pair of CAA games after snapping a 16-game conference losing streak on April 2 with their win over Hofstra.
