Men’s Lacrosse Falls Short at Roger Williams

BRISTOL, R.I. – Despite a second-half comeback bid, the Rivier men's lacrosse team lost 19-15 in its first road contest against Roger Williams in non-conference play at Bayside Field on Saturday afternoon.

The Raiders now sit at 1-1 on the season, while the Hawks moved above .500 to 3-2 overall. 

Rivier would record the first two goals of the contest, but Roger Williams would answer back with four-straight goals to take a 4-2 advantage. The Raiders would knot things up at 4-4 with goals coming from Michael Ference and Connor Eck over a span of 1:12. The Hawks would close out the half with five unanswered goals to hop out to a 9-4 lead after 15 minutes.

Roger Williams would outscore Rivier, 6-2, in the second quarter to take a commanding 15-6 lead into the half.

Despite the deficit, the Raiders rallied thanks in part to two man-up goals from Chris Heitmiller and Nicholas Tavares as part of a four-goal third quarter, cutting their deficit to just six.

After Matt Hemmert's goal just fourteen seconds into the fourth quarter would look like the beginning of the end for the Raiders, Rivier scored three in a row, including back-to-back man-down goals from Noah Zemen and Eck to make it a 17-13 ballgame. The quick-scoring stretch would not prove to be enough for the Raiders who traded pairs of goals with the Hawks down the stretch to fall by four.

Despite the loss, three Raiders notched hattricks, with Heitmiller, Ference, and Eck each scoring three goals.

Zeman's tally at the 14:35 mark of the fourth was his first collegiate goal.

Samuel Tibbetts subbed into goal just over twenty minutes into the contest to play the remainder of the game and posted nine saves in the setback as Roger Williams put 30 shots on goal to Rivier's 20.

The Raiders will continue their road series on Wednesday, Mar. 6 as they head to Plymouth St. for a 6:00 p.m. Granite State showdown at Panther Field.