HOBOKEN, N.J. (March 20, 2018)  – Senior John Boutureira netted a season-high six goals and No. 17 Stevens Institute of Technology Men's Lacrosse scored four goals on its first five shots of the game en route to a 15-10 victory over Williams College Tuesday evening in a non-conference game at the DeBaun Athletic Complex. The cojntest was originally scheduled to be played in Hoboken on Wednesday afternoon, but was moved up a day due to Winter Storm Toby.

Senior Bryan Rogers and junior Max Bailey each collected four points and junior Eric Radbourne chipped in with a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who won their third straight game to improve to 6-1. 

Brendan Hoffman scored five times for the Ephs, who saw their two-game winning streak come to an end. Williams fell to 2-3. The Ducks held Williams' leading scorer, and the reigning New England Small College Athletic Conference Player of the Week, James McFarland to just one assist.

"We are proud of our guys for gearing down and getting a great win," said head coach Gene Peluso. "We were impressed with the play from Max Bailey. He really QB'd a great game and saw the field well. [We were] also impressed with the play of Ryan Caplis, as he got us going early."

Caplis recorded his first career multi-point game with a pair of first half goals helping Stevens build a 9-3 lead at halftime. Senior Tommy Dawson had a goal and an assist and sophomore Max Ranaldi added a goal to round out the Stevens scoring.

A physical game from the opening draw, a pushing penalty by Noah McCoy led to a man-up opportunity for Stevens. Dawson, the reigning Empire 8 Conference Player of the Week, wasted little time putting the Ducks on the board, converting a Bailey feed for his 17th goal of the season. Stevens turned six Williams penalties into three goals. The Virginia Beach, Virginia native's shot 1:18 into the opening quarter was the first shot recorded by either team.

Stevens captured the ensuing faceoff on a violation and, as they had done against Haverford, converted wins in the 'X' into points on the scoreboard, with Caplis scoring on a beautiful individual effort. Wedgeworth won his third straight faceoff to again give Stevens possession. After Caplis' second shot of the game sailed high, Boutureira took a Radbourne pass and beat George Peele to give Stevens a 3-0 lead.

Stevens extended its lead to four after killing a Shawn Coulter holding penalty. Senior Dallas Creamer forced a Williams turnover and sophomore Bubba Brennan picked up the ensuing ground ball and began the Stevens clear. The Mountain Lakes, New Jersey native scooped up two grounds balls on the evening and forced one turnover. As a team, the Ducks collected nine caused turnovers on the night and picked up 24 ground balls.

"The defense had a great first half and then buckled down in the last minutes of the game," Peluso reflected. "We were impressed with the play of Bubba Brennan. He played fast and helped us in the clearing game too."

Stevens went 14-for-20 on clear attempts. Williams was 13 of 18.

Williams finally got on the board courtesy of Hoffman's first goal of the game, taking advantage of a Daniel Crotty slashing penalty. Hoffman beat Carson White three minutes later to trim the Stevens lead to two. Rogers and Kevin Stump exchanged goals less than a minute apart to send the teams to a 5-3 score after the opening 15 minutes. White finished with 12 saves to earn his fifth win of the year.

Neither team was able to establish itself in the early portion of the second quarter as only three shots were attempted over the first four minutes of play. Back-to-back goals from Radbourne and Boutureira gave Stevens a 7-3 lead and forced a Williams goalie change. Caplis greeted the new netminder with his second goal of the game in Stevens' first attempt on the new keeper. Boutureira would record his fourth goal of the half to send the teams into halftime with Stevens holding a 9-3 lead.

Hoffman opened the third quarter with two goals in a 64-second span, but the Stevens offense responded with three quick scores in a 2:30 period to seize control of the game. Williams opened the final quarter with five straight goals to pull within 13-10, but sophomore Alec Caseiro won a key faceoff, and Cameron Brown committed an untimely pushing penalty, leading to a Boutureira 'up' goal and effectively dashing Williams' comeback hopes. Over the game's final four minutes, the Ducks forced two Williams turnovers and White picked up a pair of saves. Bailey completed the day's offense with second goal of the game, beating Harry Gahagan with 22 seconds remaining.

Williams starter George Peele took the loss, allowing seven goals in just over 20 minutes of action. Gahagan allowed eight goals on 14 shots in relief.

Defensively, Williams held a 38-24 edge in ground balls and won 16 of 29 faceoffs. The Ducks forced 18 Williams turnover, while only committing 16. Williams' Alex Kitt led all players with seven ground balls and Kill went 14-9 in the 'X'. Caseiro, Bailey and Coulter each picked up four ground balls to lead Stevens. 

Stevens' 15 goals marked a season-high by a Williams opponent this season.

Up Next: No. 17 Men's Lacrosse welcomes Nazareth College for the Empire 8 Conference opener in a rematch of last season's conference championship, won by the Golden Flyers in overtime.

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