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Canisius University Athletics

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Boissonneault_Mathieu action vs Colgate 3-16-19
Dean Bogart
22
Winner Robert Morris RMU 1-0
10
Canisius CAN-M 0-2
Winner
Robert Morris RMU
1-0
22
Final
10
Canisius CAN-M
0-2
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Robert Morris RMU 4 5 8 5 22
Canisius CAN-M 1 1 3 5 10

Game Recap: Men's Lacrosse |

Robert Morris Knocks Off Men’s Lacrosse

Robert Morris Knocks Off Men's Lacrosse
 
Ryan Smith and Austin Popovich combined for 17 points to pace a high-powered Robert Morris attack as it cruised to a 22-10 victory over Canisius in collegiate men's lacrosse action Saturday at the Pinnacle Athletic Campus in Victor, N.Y.
 
Smith tallied eight goals and added two assists while Popovich pitched in five tallies and two helpers to guide the Colonials to a win in their 2020 debut. Taggert Clark recorded a hat trick and the duo of Brandon Sulhoff and Brad McCulley finished with two goals each.
 
Senior Mathieu Boissonneault recorded four goals and added two assists to pace the Golden Griffins (0-2). Sophomore Jacob Buck pitched in two goals and an assist while senior Carter Stefaniak notched his first two goals of the season.
 
Smith and Popovich tallied two goals each to counter a strike from sophomore Mike Penna to give the Colonials a 4-1 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
 
Senior Daniel Balawejder scored just 19 seconds into the second quarter to pull the Griffs within two, only to see the Colonials respond with the next eight goals over a nearly 19-minute span to build a 12-2 cushion midway through the third.
 
Smith recorded three of his game-high eight goals and added an assist during the game-changing spurt while McCully pitched in a pair of tallies.
 
Boissonneault temporarily halted the RMU surge with his first of the contest with 5:05 to play in the third, but three unanswered goals, including a pair in an eight-second stretch, made it 15-3 in favor of the Colonials.
 
The teams traded goals the rest of the way, with RMU taking its largest lead of the contest, 22-7, on a man-up goal by Smith before Canisius tallied the final three goals of the contest to determine the final 12-goal margin.
 
Head Coach Mark Miyashita's Postgame Comments
"We had some chances early on in the game that we didn't put in the back of the net and unfortunately, Robert Morris was able to jump on some of our early mistakes, get a little bit of a lead early on. Our lack of finishing on the offensive end is what hurt us and that led to the final score.
 
"A lot of our young guys are still seeing their first real significant minutes of college lacrosse and there's going to be some learning curve with that piece of everything. What we need to do is learn quickly from that and take those experiences that we're getting and put them into the positive side and learn from them and grow as a team. It's also just a matter of being comfortable playing high-speed, intense lacrosse all the time and understanding that every day at practice is important, that film work is important and what you put in is what you're going to get out. So, we need to do a better job during the week of pushing one another to be prepared."
 
Game Notes
• Saturday's game served as the 14th meeting between Canisius and Robert Morris. The Colonials expanded their lead to 8-6 in the all-time series with Saturday's victory.
• RMU out-shot Canisius by a 60-27 margin for the contest, highlighted by a 46-16 edge over the first three quarters.
• The Colonials were a perfect 19-for-19 in clear attempts while Canisius was just 13-of-21 in clears.
• RMU won 24-of-35 draws on Saturday with the Colonials Trey Arnold going 17-of-21 at the face-off X.
• Boissonneault recorded his 10th career hat trick on Saturday and recorded five or more points in a game for the eighth time in his career.
• Freshman Otto Bergmann made his first career start in goal for Canisius and made 14 saves. Senior Cody Haas played the fourth quarter and finished with five stops.
• Sophomore Ryan Sharkey led all players with three caused turnovers and pitched in four ground balls.
 
Up Next
• Canisius travels to Big Ten foe Michigan Feb. 18 for a 4 p.m. contest at the U-M Lacrosse Stadium in Ann Arbor.  
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