(Photo: Ben Haslam)

There were just two games across the DI college lacrosse landscape on Tuesday as the Bellarmine Knights faced the Hampton Pirates and the Stony Brook Seawolves hosted the St. John’s Red Storm. 

Both contest saw the home team win and a first-year head coach record their first ever win. Andrew Whitley got his first win as the head coach at Bellarmine and Anthony Gilardi secured his first win as the head coach at Stony Brook. 

Bellarmine 21, Hampton 5 (Box Score)

The Bellarmine Knights set a new program record of goals in a game as they took down the Hampton Pirates 21-5 in their home opener. While things were fairly slow on the offensive end through the early portion of the first quarter, after Hampton scored their first goal of the game on a power play midway through the first to make it a 2-1 game the Knights started to step on the gas. Bellarmine scored 16 unanswered goals from late in the first trough the third quarter, taking a 16-1 lead at the half and a 19-1 lead entering the fourth. 

While Hampton had a difficult time getting a set offensive possession, the Pirates showed much promise at the specialist positions (goalie and faceoff) through the first three quarters. The Pirates outscored the Knights 4-2 in the fourth quarter. Preston Winner scored the 20th goal for the Knights with 6:30 in the fourth to set a new program record of goals in a game. Winner then assisted on a Patrick Keegan goal with just over a minute left to push that record to 21. 

Landon Trout led Bellarmine with five points (2G/3A) while Brayden Brown scored four goals for the Knights. Hampton saw Derian Williams-Sturdivant lead the way with four points (2G/2A). Pierce Johnson also have two goals for the Pirates, as well. 

Kevin Mondy Jr. made 18 saves in 42:24 minutes for the Pirates. JC Higginbotham started and played the majority of the minutes for Bellarmine, making two saves. Jack Bozik also saw over 20 minutes of action, making five saves for the Knights. 

At the faceoff dot, Ian Groom went 16-25 for a 64% win percentage for the Pirates. The Knights used four different faceoff men with Lucas Clarke having the most success, going 4-8 for a 50% win percentage. 

Stony Brok 13, St. John’s 12 (OT) (Box Score)

The Stony Brook Seawolves opened up their season and the Anthony Gilardi era with a bang on Tuesday night, taking down St. Johns’s in an overtime thriller. The Red Storm were able to get ahead 3-0 early, but the Seawolves cut it to 3-1 at the end of the first and 3-2 early in the second. That back-and-forth play continued, but Stony Brook was able to use a three-goal run late in the half to make it a 7-7 game going into halftime. 

Many claim that Lacrosse is a game of runs, and the second half of this contest proved that statement like no other. St. John’s opened the third with a two-goal run, Stony Brook answered with a five-goal run that stretched into the fourth, and St. John’s ended the game with a three-goal run. Mike Madsen scored the final goal of regulation for the red Storm to force overtime. After a lot of heavy defensive play in the overtime period, Caleb Pearson put in one off a feed from Wayne White with just seconds to go, securing the win for the Seawolves. 

Tom Haun led Stony Brook with three goals while Cory Vanginhoven tallied three points (2G/1A). St. John’s was led by Mike Madesn with five goals and Ryan Schaffer with three points (2G/1A). 

Brody Agres made 14 saves for the Red Storm while Michael Bollinger made 13 saves for the Seawolves. At the faceoff dot, Jonathan Dugenio went 17-28 for St. John’s and Renz Conlon went 11-24 for Stony Brook.