The LIU Post men’s lacrosse team claimed their second straight East Coast Conference title on Saturday, May 2, defeating the Bears from NYIT in the championship game at Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium in Brookville, 14-9.
After an early strike by the Bears, the Pioneers responded with three unanswered goals to grab a 3-1 lead. Junior attackman Matt Bellando tallied back-to-back goals in that span while senior midfielder Connor Drost followed with an unassisted goal.
In the second quarter, it had to feel like déjà vu for the Bears as they struck first to cut the lead to 3-2, but were quickly silenced with another three goal spurt for LIU Post. The Bears stayed strong however, and managed to pull to 7-5 at halftime.
The Bears drew first blood once again in the third quarter, but the Pioneers continued the theme on the afternoon of responding to adversity. They answered that tally by sophomore attacker Thomas Hughes with four straight goals to go ahead 11-6. In that span, junior midfielder Anthony Berardis netted a goal and provided two assists.
Both sides scored a couple more goals, but the Bears never really posed a threat to the Pioneers late in the game. When the clock hit triple zeroes, the Pioneers found themselves 14-9 winners and ECC Champions for the second straight year.
Junior attackman Matty Beccaris led all players with six points while Berardis tallied two goals and two assists for a four-point effort. Senior defenseman Dan Jeannotte was dominant on faceoffs, winning 60 percent and giving LIU control for most of the afternoon. In the cage, junior goalie Adam Winne made 13 saves and was selected as the Most Outstanding Player of the ECC Championship.
The Pioneers now await word on a potential bid to the NCAA Division II Championship.
To get to the title game, the top seeded Pioneers had to get passed the fourth-seeded Lions from Molloy College in the semifinals.
Eager to get going,LIU opened up the scoring in the first quarter and tacked on three more goals to take a commanding 4-0 lead early on. Bellando provided the first goal and also assisted on two of the other three tallies in the quarter. Senior attackman Chris Caiazza and Berardis each added goals of their own during that span as well.
In the second quarter, the Lions responded with two goals in a sixty second span to cut the lead to 4-2. With the momentum seemingly hanging in the balance, the Pioneers grabbed it when the tag-team of Drost and Caiazza each scored just 30 seconds apart. Going into the break, the Pioneers led 9-5 over the Lions.
The Pioneers put all hopes of a comeback to rest in the second half as they racked up goal after goal and got a great performance at the other end by Winne, who made a game-high 15 saves en route to the 15-7 victory. Jeannotte earned his first collegiate goal.
This article was originally published in the Pioneer, the award-winning student newspaper of LIU Post, www.liupostpioneer.com, and is republished here by Blank Slate Media with the permission of the Pioneer.
