Union – Saturday, April 5, was a huge day across the athletic department at Kean University. It was Connor’s Game for Autism Awareness, a game that is dedicated to Associate Director of Athletics Jay Sgaramella’s son, Connor Sgamarella, to raise awareness for Autism.
Baseball and women’s lacrosse also participated and played games on Saturday, but men’s lacrosse closed things out with a 15-13 conference win against Stockton University on Saturday night.
The Kean Cougars came into the matchup with a 9-3 record on the year and 0-1 in the Coastal Lacrosse Conference (CLC). Stockton’s record was 7-6 and 0-2 in the CLC.
The Cougars struck first in the contest with a goal from Brian Novotny that was assisted by Dylan Johnson. The Cougars would concede a goal, but as the quarter was coming to an end, they looked unstoppable, scoring three goals while conceding one to take a 4-2 lead going into the second quarter.
As the first half continued, Kean continued to assert its dominance over Stockton, but at the end of the half the Cougars made a mistake. Evan Wilkins committed a cross-check two minute penalty with under a minute to go in the first half.
As a result of playing without that one man, the Cougars lost the momentum, they were outscored 6-3 in the third quarter as the Ospreys tied the game up going into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Cougars showed their resilience. Kean came out aggressive and took back control of the game as they scored three straight goals to go up 14-11. As the game was coming to an end, the Cougars held on to the lead and did not let their opponent get a chance to come back.
Kean’s Head Coach Alex Lopes spoke on his team’s performance in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
“I just continue to be proud of the resilience that this team shows, could’ve been really easy to let that spiral and let their run continue… the message going into the fourth was to stay the course,” said Coach Lopes.
The Cougars had two big performances by their upperclassmen on the night. Senior attacker Nick Thorne had six goals and one assist on the night, and junior attacker Dylan Johnson had three goals and three assists.
Johnson gave all the credit to his teammates and his coach for his big performance tonight.
“I think it comes down to all my teammates, they always help me out…Coach Lopes always has my back, make a mistake, it’s always get the next one,” said Johnson.
With his six goals tonight Thorne is now up to 40 goals on the season which is ranked fourth in the CLC.
“He’s so even keel, he never gets too high, he never gets too low… I’m just so glad I don’t have to game plan for defending him because I don’t think you can,” said Coach Lopes.
The Cougars dedicated their win to Connor as they ended the night with a big win on such a special night.
“That was Connor, that was for Jay and his whole family; It’s a special day, this started as a men’s lacrosse thing… the fact that we can grow it to a day that baseball and women’s lacrosse… we want the community to really buy in and it was cool to see that,” said Coach Lopes.
Josh Graham, Gage Parker, and Jack Vandegrift each recorded a hat trick for Stockton, with Vandegrift adding a pair of assists.
The Cougars improve to 10-3 on the season and 1-1 in the CLC, and this was their second straight win. Their next game will be at home against Penn College as they will look to continue to win and finish the season strong. The Ospreys fell to 7-7 on the year, 0-3 in the CLC and will next travel to Montclair State.
