Men's Lacrosse Defeats Dominican to Clinch CACC Playoff Berth

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Needing a win to clinch a berth into the CACC playoffs, the University of Bridgeport's men's lacrosse team nabbed a 12-7 triumph at Dominican on Friday afternoon. The Purple Knights, who are now 7-7 overall this season (4-4, CACC), will be the No. 5 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.

UB set the tone against the Chargers by tallying the first five goals of the game, scored by five different players. The Purple Knights then put together a 3-0 spurt in the fourth quarter to go up 11-6.

It was another balanced showing from the road squad as nine players combined for their 12 goals and five different players totaled their five assists.

Ashton Lankowski, Stephen Trama and James Napoli each led the way with two goals apiece while James Goodrich, Dewey Schoenfelder, Matthew Levantini, Hunter Lizza, Liam O'Neill and Marcus Burrows also found the back of the net.

Lizza, Napoli, Levantini, Trama and Goodrich also all added helpers to their stat lines on Friday. Napoli's three points raises his team-leading total to 39 this season (25G, 14A).

UB's offense was aided supremely by another dominant effort in faceoffs. The Purple Knights went 16-of-22 in that department, including a 7-for-7 effort in the first quarter.

Sal D'Amico lost just three faceoffs while winning a team-best nine. He also matched Ryan Thomas for the team lead with six ground balls.

Speaking of Thomas, he was once again UB's defensive leader with another four caused turnovers in the contest. He is currently ranked second in the CACC in CTs per game (2.86) this season.  

Sophomore goalkeeper Casey Dmochowski enjoyed one of his best games of the season to pick up his seventh win of the year. The Massachusetts native totaled his third highest save total (15) while allowing just six shots past.

Dmochowski, who eclipsed 400 career saves in the win, now has reached double-figure stops in 11 contests this season while allowing single-digit goals across five games.

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The fifth-seeded Purple Knights will play at fourth-seeded Post in the first round of the CACC Tournament on Monday afternoon (3:30 p.m.). Bridgeport and the Eagles also played last year in the first round which resulted in a Post victory.