St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Villanova
St. John's Falls At Villanova, 21-11
4/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 18, 2015
VILLANOVA, Pa. -- A free-scoring start and hat tricks from attackmen Eric DeJohn and Stefan Diachenko was not enough as the St. John's lacrosse team suffered a 21-11 road defeat to Villanova in BIG EAST action on Saturday night. Riding a hot start, the Red Storm led 4-1 early in the first quarter and 9-8 midway through the second stanza but was ultimately undone by an 8-0 Wildcats scoring run that began at the end of the first half and continued into the third quarter.
"Things really spiraled away from us in the second half, and collectively, as a group, we played like a frustrated team," said St. John's head coach Jason Miller. "We're a better lacrosse team than the last 30 minutes showed tonight."
St. John's (3-10, 1-3 BIG EAST) remains alive for a spot in the 2015 BIG EAST Championship, needing a win at Georgetown next Saturday in its regular-season finale in addition to a Providence home victory over Villanova (6-6, 1-3 BIG EAST) on the same day to clinch the final available berth into the conference postseason tournament.
The Red Storm produced its second perfect clearing performance of the season under the lights at Villanova Stadium on Saturday, going 12-for-12 in addition to committing just seven turnovers and benefiting from 10 different point scorers. The host Wildcats, however, finished with a 55-33 edge in shots, 27-21 edge in groundballs and won 23-of-36 faceoffs while converting on 4-of-9 man-up opportunities.
DeJohn finished with a hat trick of both goals and assists to lead St. John's at the offensive end, while senior co-captain Diachenko chipped in with three goals and two assists. Junior midfielder James Bonanno dished out two assists and two Red Storm players, sophomore faceoff man Jack Lally and junior LSM Michael Paoline, scored their first career goals. Defensively, senior LSM Chris Fisher Jr. tallied a team-high five groundballs, senior co-captain and defenseman Mark DiFrangia added three, and junior goalie Harry Burke made 11 saves in 38:38 of action, including eight in the opening quarter.
Offensively, St. John's came out of the gates firing from all angles on Saturday night. The Red Storm opened the scoring 2:20 into the contest with senior midfielder Nick Sherry feeding Diachenko to score on a powerful overhand shot from a difficult angle, before going up 2-0 just 1:12 later on a close-range finish by sophomore Brian Gaffney assisted by DeJohn. After Villanova's opening goal of the game, St. John's responded with two more unanswered goals to go up 4-1, the first on a lung-busting effort by Lally. The junior won a restart and corralled the ensuing groundball before setting off on a mazy run to evade a number of pursuing Wildcats, finally spotting a clear path to the opposing goal and finishing under pressure to net his first career goal in a St. John's uniform. After two-straight goals by Villanova had reduced the Red Storm's early lead to 4-3, sophomore midfielder Nick Heller scored on a lefty runner and Fisher Jr. fed DeJohn in transition to put the visitors up 6-3, marking St. John's highest-scoring first quarter of 2015.
Villanova scored three times in the remaining 5:15 of a lively first quarter and opened the scoring in the second stanza to claim a 7-6 lead. Diachenko and DeJohn found the back of the net on consecutive scores, however, and, after a scoreline of 8-all, freshman attackman Jason DeBenedictis scored from a DeJohn assist to give St. John's its final lead of the contest at 9-8 with 7:41 remaining in the second quarter.
The Wildcats, who celebrated Senior Day prior to Saturday's game, led 10-9 at halftime and scored all six goals in the third stanza before finishing with a 5-2 scoring edge in the final 15 minutes. Villanova received seven points on five goals from Sean Cerrone and five saves from starting goalie Greg Stamatov.
The Red Storm closes out regular-season play next Saturday, April 25, traveling to our nation's capital to face Georgetown at 1 p.m.
