Garden City, N.Y. - With a hat trick from graduate student
Joseph Duchnowski, the no. 4 Adelphi University men's lacrosse team rolled to its fourth straight win to open up the 2023 campaign, ousting American International College 10-3 on Saturday afternoon in its home opener.
Duchnowski led all players with three goals as
Jason Rebaudo and
Kyle Steinbach each chipped in a pair. Through the first four games of the season, the Panthers (4-0, 1-0 NE10) are outscoring opponents 60-24. Defensively this afternoon, three different Cats contributed a pair of caused turnovers and newcomer
Hugh Keenan put up a 9-for-10 stint at the faceoff X.
Jack Hipchen was the first to break the silence, scoring after four minutes went by in the first quarter. Duchnowski assisted the next two goals en route to a 5-0 lead after the opening 15 minutes of work. It was all Adelphi as they tacked on three more before American International (2-2, 0-1 NE10) got their first tally on the board, after being held scoreless for nearly 25 minutes. Rebaudo added the home team's ninth tally of the day as both sides remained quiet until the halftime break.
Lucky sevens across the turnover stat line for both teams, as AIC finished with 24 and only an 18-for-31 mark in clears. For the Panthers, they saw two more miscues on their side for the contest, but put up a 20-for-21 finish in clear attempts.
Kyle Cash replaced starter
Dylan Renner in goal to start the second half, and finished with four saves to his name in the win.
Heading into the final frame with an eight-goal advantage, the home team took seven shots towards AIC netminder Hayden Gaudette, who tallied a season-high 12 saves in his second loss of the season, saving three in the fourth. The Yellow Jackets managed to sneak a strike past Cash, as Rusty Stone finally put one in to cut the deficit to seven.
Several miscues down the stretch took away additional opportunities for the Cats, who still came out on top with a 10-3 final decision for their first Northeast-10 Conference victory of the year.
The Panthers will continue their homestand on Wednesday, March 8 when they host Caldwell University under the lights at 7:00 p.m.
