Men's Lacrosse Wins Defensive Battle Against Franklin Pierce, 8-7

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Playing in their final non-conference game of the season, the University of Bridgeport's men's lacrosse team earned an 8-7 win over Franklin Pierce on Tuesday night. The victory pushes the Purple Knights' record to 3-3 this spring.

Down 6-5 after three quarters, the Purple Knights allowed just one goal across the final 15 minutes of regulation. UB outscored the Ravens, 3-1, in the fourth quarter with James Napoli's tally at the 2:56 mark (which gave UB an 8-6 lead) being the game-winner.

Speaking of Napoli, the sophomore matched a team high with three goals in the game. Aidan Kirkpatrick also finished with a hat trick to lead the Purple Knights.

One of Kirkpatrick's goals was short-handed to tie the game at 6-6 early in the fourth quarter.

With Napoli and Kirkpatrick combining for six tallies, it was James Goodrich and Dewey Schoenfelder supplementing the attack with a goal apiece.

Schoenfelder also dished out a team-high three assists to finish with a team-best four points.

Defensively, the Purple Knights racked up a season-high 18 caused turnovers. Brian Wolfe, Liam O'Neill and Ryan Thomas all finished with three caused turnovers.

Sophomore Luca Runyan was also stellar on defense, finishing the game with a team-high seven ground balls.

Bridgeport forced the Franklin Pierce goalie, Mike Masterpolo, to make 17 saves in the game.

Junior goalkeeper Peter Nazario finished with a crucial nine saves to pick up his third win of the season. 

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The Purple Knights will begin conference play with a road trip to Wilmington on Saturday.