FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Men's Lacrosse used a 6-1 run in the second half to climb back to within a goal of visiting Drexel at 12-11 with 8:08 to play in Saturday's Colonial Athletic Association tilt on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium. But the Dragons netted three goals in the span of 60 seconds to pull away for a 15-11 win. Jack McKenna and Bryce Ford posted identical statlines with three goals and one assist apiece for the Stags.
 
With the loss, the Stags fall to 3-7 overall and 1-2 in the CAA. Drexel stays unbeaten in conference play at 3-0 as a part of a 6-3 overall mark.
 
"I told the guys in the locker room that I was proud of their effort," said Head Coach Andrew Baxter. "We talk a lot about being 'one play warriors' and we did a much better job of that in the second half. We didn't play to the scoreboard, we focused on the play in front of us and competing up to our standard. But we need to do a better job of that for a full 60 minutes."
 
In addition to the four-point days for McKenna and Ford, their fellow starting attackman Max Paparozzi scored a goal with two assists. Will Consoli added a pair of goals from the midfield, with Dean Ford and Rob Moore each registering a goal and an assist. Rounding out the scoring, Ryan Lancaster recorded an assist from the defensive midfield in transition.
 
The defense pressured Drexel into 20 turners, led by four caused turnovers for Zack Antoniou. Matt Rice added three caused turnovers and five ground balls with the short stick, and Consoli had two caused turnovers and three grounders on the ride. Will Snyder made 12 saves in the cage.
 
The game's first run came from the Dragons, who turned a 4-3 deficit into a 10-4 lead with seven straight tallies. The Stags ended the run late in the second period, as McKenna capped his first-half hat trick to send the game to the intermission with Drexel on top, 10-5.
 
The Dragons also scored first out of the locker room on a pole goal from Brennan Greenwald to extend the margin to 11-5 less than a minute into the third frame. At that point, the Fairfield defense limited Drexel to just one goal over the next 21:52 of action while putting up six to trim the Dragons' lead all the way to 12-11. The scoring came from Moore, Paparozzi, Bryce Ford, Dean Ford and a pair by Consoli, with McKenna, Paparozzi and each Ford brother also recording an assist during the stretch.
 
However, Drexel fired back with three goals in the span of just 60 seconds to grow its lead back to 15-11 with 6:12 left, and the Stags would not score again as time expired.
 
The Fairfield defense held reigning CAA Offensive Player of the Year Jack Mulcahy without a point, but Luke Tomak picked up the slack with four goals and an assist. Conor Hooley added two goals and two assists, with Sean Donnelly and Max Semple each contributing a hat trick. Ross Blumenthal made 15 saves in the Drexel cage, and Justin Joseph went 19-for-30 at the faceoff X with 13 ground balls.
 
"Drexel is a very good team that thrives in unsettled situations – they win faceoffs and 50/50 balls, they can run and they have a lot of guys that can finish," Baxter noted. "You can't necessarily prepare for that as well as you can prepare for a settled offense, you just have to win more of those 50/50 balls and stop those situations from happening. But they did a better job than us on 50/50 balls today and that led to a few goals that were a big part of the difference."
 
The Stags are back in action next Saturday, April 8 at defending CAA Champion Delaware. The Blue Hens stayed unbeaten in the CAA with a 19-1 win over Hampton this afternoon to improve to 7-3 overall and 3-0 in league play.