Men's Lacrosse Downed by Clark in Season Opener

Worcester, Mass. – The freshman duo of Rob Holden (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and Jacob Maselek (Marblehead, Mass.) combined for ten goals and four assists and host Clark University opened up its 23rd season of lacrosse with a dominating wire-to-wire 19-7 win over Worcester-area rival Anna Maria on Thursday afternoon.

Maselek led all players with six goals, while Holden had four goals of his own to go along with four assists. Fellow newcomer Luke Dunn (Amherst, Mass.) added two goals and an assist, while junior Jonah Bass (Amherst, Mass.) dished out a career-best three assists.

The win for the Cougars marks the second time in their last three home outings in which they have scored 19 goals. The AMCATS, coming off of an appearance in the GNAC semifinals a season ago, never found any flow offensively in dropping their third straight meeting with Clark.

The Scarlet and White wasted little time getting on the board as junior sniper Jeffrey Wasson (Buckhorn, Ontario) picked up right where he left off last season, registering an unassisted tally less than 30 seconds into the game.

Holden and Maselek then went to work scoring the game's next six goals, with Holden recording back-to-back unassisted markers less than two minutes apart.

Maselek, meanwhile, scored three straight times – one on a pass from classmate Alex Turgeon (Holden, Mass.) and the other two with help from Holden.

Holden wrapped up the seven-goal first period with his third score on a feed from another freshman – Jon Spencer (Hollis, N.H.) at 3:57.

Anna Maria freshman Lucas Stralka (East Greenwich, R.I.) finally got the AMCATS on the board with an unassisted rocket that whizzed past Kevin Ranta (Beverley, Mass.) at the 12:19 mark of the second. Scott Henry (Warwick, R.I.) then found Jason Baker (Billerica, Mass.) on a man-up opportunity for Anna Maria less than two minutes later, making the score 9-2.

The Cougars answered back with two goals before the half ended as Bass made excellent passes to Peter Christiansen (Seattle, Wash.) and Dunn for an 11-2 Cougar halftime edge.

Over a seven minute span midway through the fourth quarter, Anna Maria scored four straight goals as Baker and Stralka each collected their second of the game and Rod Henriques (Saugus, Mass.) posted back-to-back goals, but Thomas Lynch (Auburn, Maine) wrapped up the scoring, netting a pair of markers in the final two minutes to make up the final score.

Clark held a sizable advantage in groundballs (50-38) as Zach Duffy (Wakefield, Mass.) and Turgeon had eight and seven respectively, while Holden added five to go along with his outstanding offensive effort.

Ranta made nine saves in goal for Cougars before being replaced in the final six minutes by freshman Daniel Marcus (Boca Raton, Fla.).

AMCAT netminder, Joshua Giarratano (Warwick, R.I.) was excellent in his first collegiate appearance, turning back 13 shots and collecting six groundballs.

Anna Maria returns to the field on Wednesday when they travel to Husson for a 4:00 p.m. start, while the Cougars are off until Thursday when they take on DeSales University in Clearwater, Fla.

Release courtesy of Clark University's Sports Information Department