HOBOKEN, N.J. (May 3, 2019)  – No. 10/No. 10 Stevens Institute of Technology men's lacrosse will take to the friendly confines of the DeBaun Athletic Complex Saturday at noon in search of a second straight Empire 8 Conference Championship.

On the other side of the field will be a familiar foe in St. John Fisher College, who fell to the Ducks in last year's championship, 13-9. The teams also met just two weeks ago, with the Ducks coming away with a two-goal victory.

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Historically Speaking
Stevens is 7-8 all-time in the Empire 8 Championship after Wednesday's 17-12 win over Nazareth College. The Ducks are 2-1 all-time in the postseason against St. John Fisher and have won each of the last two matchups between the teams in the conference tournament. Stevens is in search of its third E8 title. If the Ducks win the game, they'd become the first repeat champion since RIT won back-to-back titles in 2010-11.

St. John Fisher is 4-9 all-time in the conference tournament after a convincing victory over Hartwick. The Cardinals are playing in the postseason for the second year in a row after missing the tournament in 2017.

Stevens leads the all-time series 9-4 and the Ducks have won six straight, and eight of the last nine, meetings between the teams. St. John Fisher has only won once in Hoboken: a 15-14 win on May 1, 2009.

You Look Familiar
The teams met in Hoboken on April 20 with Stevens holding off St. John Fisher 11-9. St. John Fisher scored three of the first four goals to stun the Senior Day crowd, but junior Brendan Monteleone took a Connor Murphy pass and beat the first-quarter buzzer to give Stevens its first lead of the afternoon. Sophomore Ryan Gebhardt had tied the game just seven seconds prior. The Ducks snapped a 6-all tie in the second half with four straight goals to take control of the game.

The program's also met in last season's E8 final with the Ducks hanging on for a 13-9 win. Then-senior John Boutureira scored four times in the first half as the Ducks built an eight-goal lead in the opening half, before the guests closed to within two early in the fourth quarter before Eric Radbourne and Boutureira netted insurance goals to seal the victory.

Getting Offensive
St. John Fisher arrives in Hoboken with one of the most prolific offenses in the country, ranking fourth nationally with 18.24 goals per game. The Cardinals also take advantage of extra-man opportunities, ranking second in Division III with a 0.578 conversion rate. 

Sophomore Nicholas Miller is fourth among 247 ranked players with 5.85 points per game. He's also sixth in Division III with 4.18 goals per game, however, in their matchup in April, Stevens held the high-scoring attackman to just two goals. 

Faceoff specialist Joe Post is ranked seventh in the country with a 73 percent success rate in the 'X'. He's also fourth in ground balls with 12.29 per game.

Stevens isn't exactly lacking for offensive firepower with an average of 17 goals per game, which ranks 14th in the country. Senior Max Bailey is 12th in Division III with an average of 2.82 assists per game. Sophomore Nico Ipeker is in the middle of a breakout campaign, leading the nation in shot percentage (0.591).

The Ducks also take good care of the ball, ranking second in the country in fewest turnovers, committing just 15.17 miscues per game. The team also ranks ninth in man-up offense, converting 46.3 percent of its extra-man opportunities.

In a statistical oddity, despite Stevens' six-game winning streak in the series, it's been the Cardinals that have broken through first in each of the last two games and three times over the last six meetings.

But Defense Wins Ballgames...
Senior goalie Carson White leads a strong Stevens defensive unit. The program's all-time leader in saves ranks 21st among 204 netminders with a 58.7 save percentage and 18th with a 8.22 goals against average.

White's counterpart, Darin Eakins, leads the conference with an 8.04 goals against average and joined White in making 13 saves in the team's previous meeting. Each netminder made 13 saves in the team's April matchup.

As a team, the Cardinals lead the country in man-down defense and are ninth in scoring defense, allowing 7.24 goals per game. The Ducks aren't too far behind, allowing 7.28 tallies per game to rank 11th.

Milestone Tracker
Multiple players have reached career milestones during the 2019 season. Senior Max Bailey became the program's all-time leader in career points and became the fifth active player in Division III, and seventh among all NCAA divisions, to amass 300 career points with his four-point performance against Nazareth. Radbourne and junior Monteleone joined Bailey and Gebhardt in netting their 100th career goal and senior Dean Peluso collected his 100th career point. Additionally, head coach Gene Peluso became the program's all-time leader in career victories when the Ducks topped the Cardinals in April.

Gebhardt still has one more milestone on his radar. The Baldwinsville, New York native has tallied 57 goals to date and needs five more to break the program's single-season record. Alumnus Joe Di Pompeo netted 61 goals in 1997. Gebhardt scored 55 in his inaugural season on Castle Point, which ranks fourth in any single season.

Home Cooking
Stevens is 77-18 at home under Peluso. The Ducks have dropped just six games at the DeBaun Athletic Complex since the start of the 2016 season.

Going Streaking…
The Ducks enter the game on a 13-game winning streak, which is believed to be the longest streak in program history. Stevens won 12 in a row to open the 2011 season, however, many of the game-by-game records of the formative years of the program are unavailable.

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