Trinity College Men's Lacrosse Falters Against Wesleyan

Photo is courtesy of Trinity College

Hartford, Conn. – The Trinity College men's lacrosse team took a 9-7 lead into the half but was outscored 8-3 in the second half as the Wesleyan University Cardinals came away with a 15-12 victory on Tuesday evening in Hartford. Trinity falls to 3-8 overall and 1-6 in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) play while the Cardinals improve to 8-3 overall and 4-3 in conference action. Trinity senior captain Ryan DeSimone (St. James, N.Y.) led all scorers with six goals to go along with two assists and three ground balls while Wesleyan sophomore Taylor Ghesquiere (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) paced the Cardinals with five goals.

Both teams combined for ten goals in the first quarter as the game was tied, 5-5, after the first 15
minutes of action. DeSimone and Ghesquiere both tallied two goals each in the first quarter while goals from sophomore Ben Knaus (Ross, Calif.), Grady Smith (New York, N.Y.), and John Caraviello (Wellesley, Mass.) for the Bantams and Quentin DellaFera (Lattington, N.Y.) and two from Ryan Lynch (Somers, Conn.) for the Cardinals kept the game even after one.

The second quarter was dominated by Trinity who got another three goals from DeSimone and one more from Knaus to give the hosts a 9-7 advantage heading to the break. Ghesquiere scored less than five minutes into the quarter for Wesleyan before the team went over ten minutes without a goal. Niall Devaney (North Falmouth, Mass.) broke the scoring drought with 58 seconds left on an assist from Christian Barker (Highlands Ranch, Colo.).

Devaney opened up the third quarter with a goal for Wesleyan that ignited a 3-0 run which gave the Cardinals back a 10-9 advantage. Caraviello ripped a shot past Wesleyan goalie Ted Bergman (Media, Pa.) at the 7:07 mark to re-tie the game before a snipe from sophomore Henry Pierandri (Ridgefield, Conn.) reclaimed the lead for the Bantams. Ghesquiere scored with just under a minute to play in the third quarter to tie the game once again entering the final quarter of play.

It was all Wesleyan in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals outscored Trinity, 4-1, to seal the victory. Harry Stanton (New Canaan, Conn.) rattled off three consecutive goals for Wesleyan, giving the Cardinals a three goal advantage with less than five minutes to play, before Ghesquiere's fifth goal of the game with 1:50 left iced the game. DeSimone found the back of the net one last time at the 1:16 mark but it was not enough to spark a comeback for the Bantams.

Trinity won the faceoff battle as freshman Scott Morgan (Grand Rapids, Mich.) won 17-of-30, however the Bantams committed 17 turnovers compared to just 11 by Wesleyan.

Trinity returns to action on Saturday as they play hosts to the Middlebury Panthers at 2 p.m. at Robin Sheppard Field.