NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Rivier men's lacrosse team earned a 14-6 road victory over Norwich on Wednesday afternoon at Sabine Field to secure an undefeated regular season against Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opponents and earn the top spot in the conference's postseason tournament.
The Raiders finished the campaign on an 11-game winning streak, including nine GNAC wins, to finish 13-1 (9-0 GNAC). The Cadets finished their season 4-11 (2-7 GNAC).
Rivier got out to a 3-0 lead 2:07 into the second quarter with seniors Chris Heitmiller and Sawyer Hall tallying the goals. Heitmiller added his second of the game with 10:21 to play in the half following Norwich's first goal two minutes earlier to make it a 4-1 game. The Cadets scored with 2:52 left in the second quarter to cut their deficit to two, but graduate student Connor Eck would make it a three-goal lead again, scoring on a feed from senior Michael Zapatka just over a minute later.
The Raiders scored three straight goals to open the second half, with Heitmiller securing a hat trick before graduate classmates Coby Mercier and Adam Hailey added their first tallies of the contest to make it 8-2 in favor of the guests. Norwich scored twice, sandwiching another Heitmiller goal, to make it 9-4 after 45 minutes of play.
Rivier would go on to score five consecutive goals, coming from Zapatka, graduate student Michael Ference, Heitmiller, and Eck, to put the game out of reach, leading by 10. The Cadets score a pair in the final 25 seconds to slightly cut into the healthy Rivier lead.
Heitmiller finished with seven points, scoring six goals in the victory. He also secured a pair of ground balls and caused one turnover. Eck and Hall each posted two goals, with Eck tacking on four assists with two ground balls and one caused turnover. Sophomore Owen McDuffie went 8-of-13 at the faceoff spot, snagging a team-high five ground balls. Classmate and fellow FOGO Noah Zeman went 5-for-9 with four ground balls. Mercier, Zapatka, Ference, and senior Joseph O'Reilly each recorded three ground balls. Junior Scott Miller posted a team-best three caused turnovers. In the crease, reigning GNAC Goalkeeper of the Week graduate Sawyer Gagnon made nine saves in his 11th victory of the season.
Rivier outshot Norwich, 51-28, with 31 shots on landing on target. The Raiders went 2-for-2 (100%) on extra man opportunities and edged the Cadets in the ground ball battle, 40-34. Clearing attempts were successful just 55.6% of the time as the Cadets went 15-of-27. Norwich turned the ball over 27 times to Rivier's 21 giveaways.
The Raiders secured the top spot in the GNAC Tournament, posting an unblemished 6-0 record against North Division foes. Rivier will host JWU (Providence), the No. 4 seed in the South Division, in Saturday's GNAC Quarterfinal round. The opening faceoff is set for 1:00 p.m. from Joanne Merrill Field.
