Colchester, Vt. – Attackmen Kevin Kelly (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) and Mike Jenkins (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa) each recorded four points to lead the second-ranked Le Moyne College men's lacrosse team to an 18-6 win over Saint Michael's College in the Northeast-10 Conference regular season finale on Saturday at Duffy Field.
Saint Michael's scored the game's first goal, but the Dolphins responded with six straight to take control of the contest. Tim McDonald got the Purple Knights on the scoreboard with 11:39 left in the first quarter after taking a pass from Jamie McGill.
Jenkins evened the score at one apiece with his 22nd goal of the season with 6:41 remaining. Kelly followed 60 seconds later with his first of four goals in the game to put the Dolphins in front after taking a pass from senior midfielder Andrew Chadderdon (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn). Senior midfielder Mike DeBottis (North Syracuse, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse/Onondaga C.C.) tallied his fifth goal of the campaign with 1:45 remaining in the quarter off a feed from freshman midfielder Brian Rogers (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa). After collecting the loose ball on the ensuing face-off, junior midfielder Alec Westerhoff (Lagrange Park, Ill./Lyons Township/Bridgton Academy) raced up field to net his fifth goal of the year. Senior midfielder Kam Bumpus (Marshfield, Mass./Needham/Bridgton Academy) gave Le Moyne a 5-1 lead with 8:20 left in the second quarter off a pass from Chadderdon, the 48th assist of his career. Bumpus then won the ensuing faceoff and fed Kelly for his second goal of the afternoon.
Matt Dromeshauser ended Le Moyne's run with 7:42 left by finishing off a feed from Sean Smith.
The Dolphins responded with three goals in a span of 2:09 to close out the scoring in the first half. After a save by Saint Michael's goalkeeper Theo Ferguson, Kelly scooped up the rebound and dumped it into the back of the net with 3:31 remaining. Just 61 seconds later, senior attackman Chris Button (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) netted his 29th goal of the season after receiving a pass from Jenkins to force a Saint Michael's timeout. Kelly ended the half's scoring with 1:22 left after taking a feed from Jenkins, his 48t career assist, which ties Chadderdon and Jeff Sanford '02 for 14th on the program's career chart. With the goal, Kelly becomes the 12th Dolphin in the 31-year history of the program to tally 40 goals in a season and is the first since Brian Cost '08 did so in 2008 with 41.
Jenkins gave the Dolphins a 10-2 lead with an unassisted marker with 11:10 remaining in the third quarter.
Saint Michael's snapped its scoring drought of 16:33 with 6:09 left in the quarter as Asa Sargent finished off a feed from Cooper Quenneville.
The Dolphins pushed their lead into double-digits with the final three goals of the third quarter. Following a pair of slashing penalties on the Purple Knights, Chadderdon registered his 21st goal of the season in the 6-on-4 situation with 5:31 left. The goal gives Chadderdon 133 points in his career, which passes Jack Harmatuk '11 for the 13th-most on the career charts. Just over one and one-half minutes later, Button tallied his 89th career goal – tied with Harmatuk and Greg Downey '94 for the eighth-most in the program's history – after taking a pass from freshman attackman Alex O'Brien (Hanson, Mass./Boston College High). DeBottis capped the quarter's scoring with 2:18 off another assist by O'Brien, who had scooped up the loose ball following an errant shot.
The teams alternated goals over the first 12 minutes of the fourth quarter. DeBottis gave the Dolphins an 11-goal lead for the first time with an unassisted goal 2:32 into the stanza. After scooping up the ground ball on the ensuing faceoff, Taylor Wallace fed Billy Farrell for his first goal of the season. O'Brien pushed the lead back to 11 with 10:32 left, while Galen Antolino scored off a pass from McGill with 8:00 to play. Senior attackman Brett Axelson (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia/Merrimack) registered his first goal as a Dolphin with 6:07 left after receiving a pass from junior Nick Keeler (Apalachin, N.Y./Vestal). Connor Glackin ended the back-and-forth stretch with 3:21 remaining off a pass from Evan Antolino.
A pair of Le Moyne sophomores scored in the final minute to close out the game's scoring. Following a save by Saint Michael's goalkeeper Andrew Landers, attackman Pat Nowak (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) picked up the rebound and deposited it into the back of the net with 49 seconds left. After winning the ensuing faceoff, attackman Andrew Jackson (Syracuse, N.Y./Henninger) passed the ball to Axelson, who returned the ball to Jackson for his third goal of the campaign.
Junior goalkeeper Pat Brothers (Burlington, Mass./Malden Catholic) registered a pair of saves (against three goals) over 39:22 between the pipes to earn the win for the Dolphins. Kelly finishes the regular season with 55 points, while Jenkins tallied 50 points. The two totals are the top two totals by a Dolphin in the regular season over the last 12 years. With his ninth and final ground ball of the game, Bumpus recorded his 100th ground ball of the season, the second-most in a season by a Dolphin, trailing just his 114 from last year. With his 66th career starting assignment, graduate student defenseman Alex Cameron-Carter (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) set the program's record for career starts. Ferguson took the loss for the Purple Knights after allowing nine goals in the first half, while making eight saves.
Le Moyne (13-1, 10-1 NE-10), which is seeded second in the Northeast-10 Conference Championship, hosts a conference semifinal game on Friday at 1:00 p.m. against either third-seeded Merrimack College or sixth-seeded Saint Anselm College. The Warriors and the Hawks square off on Tuesday in the first round of the NE-10 Championships. In the regular season, the Dolphins defeated Merrimack, 16-9, on March 25 in Syracuse, while topping Saint Anselm, 18-5, on March 29 in Manchester.
