No.18 Saints Rattle Off Eight Straight Goals To Drop Rensselaer, 11-5

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Apr. 18: The No. 18 St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team used an eight-goal run and shut down Rensselaer's offense for nearly 40 minutes en route to an 11-5 victory over the Red Hawks in Troy, NY on Saturday afternoon. The win is the 29th consecutive Liberty League victory for the Scarlet and Brown, which clinched at least a share of the conference's regular season title.

The Saints improved to 9-2 on the season and remained perfect in conference play (5-0). The Red Hawks fall to 5-7 overall and 3-2 in league play.

St. Lawrence jumped out of the gate offensively with back-to-back goals only 1:12 seconds apart for a 2-0 advantage. Junior Scott Smith opened the scoring while senior captain Alex Slauson followed with his first of three goals. After Rensselaer got on the board at 3:07 when Josh Secora made it 2-1, Slauson capped the first quarter scoring for a 3-1 lead at the 8:48 mark.

Rensselaer would jab back to start the second quarter, as the home team scored three tallies in a span of only 2:52 to take their first lead at 4-3. Brett Evans scored a man-up tally at 2:01 and Secora evened the score only 13 seconds later at 3-3. Nick Billy then put the Red Hawks ahead by a goal at 4-3 with 10:07 to play in the second stanza.

Having seen their lead disappear, the Saints responded with a dominant eight-goal run that spanned 38:14 minutes and ended Rensselaer's hopes of scoring an impressive upset. First-year student Caldwell Rohrbach led the charge by tying the game at 4-4, and after a goal by senior John Allen, Rohrbach again scored for a 6-4 halftime advantage for St. Lawrence.

Turnovers would prove to haunt Rensselaer throughout the game, especially in the second half. The home team turned the ball over 25 times which allowed the visitors to continue their scoring in the third quarter. St. Lawrence added two goals in the third period, as Rohrbach and senior Peter Carroll beat RPI goalie Ryan DeJordy for an 8-4 lead.

Junior John Manning, Slauson and Allen would cap St. Lawrence's eight-goal run in the fourth quarter to put the Scarlet and Brown on top 11-4. Manning took a feed from classmate Trevor Scoon and buried a shot only 16 seconds into the quarter. Slauson followed only 1:06 later and Allen capped the Saints' scoring with 3:58 left to play.

Evans scored the final goal of the game for Rensselaer with less than two minutes remaining, ending the Red Hawks' scoring drought and capping the game's scoring at 11-5. Despite being outshot 35-28, Rensselaer finished with a 27-19 advantage in ground balls and won 14-of-22 face-offs.

Senior Thomas Hollingsworth made four stops in net for St. Lawrence to pick up the win, while DeJordy made 10 saves between the pipes for RPI.

The Scarlet and Brown clinched at least a share of the 2009 Liberty League regular season title, and could win the league's regular season outright if Union defeats Clarkson on Saturday evening.

St. Lawrence will be in action again on Thursday, April 23 in a showdown of nationally-ranked foes when the Saints square off with Cortland State in Syracuse, NY at 4:00pm.