Box Score GREENWICH, Conn. (February 15, 2025) – The Western New England men's lacrosse team started their 2025 spring season on Saturday at The Greenwich Country Day School taking on the tenth-ranked Saints of St. Lawrence University and would play to a 12-11 double overtime loss, a heartbreaking start to the season. Josh Gagnon led Western New England with four points in the morning contest, three goals and an assist overall. 

Records:

• Western New England: 0-1
• No. 10 St. Lawrence University: 12-0

How it Happened:

Western New England would win the opening faceoff of the 2025 season as Chris Catuosco would scoop the ground ball, getting an attack mounted for the blue and gold. The Golden Bears got a shot away on their first attempt of the game when Devin Richard ripped a shot that would catch iron, keeping the Golden Bears from opening the game with the lead. St. Lawrence's first possession of the game would be a turnover, scooped up by WNE for a successful clear. Neither team would pick up a goal in the first six minutes of the game. Western New England was the first to find the back of the net as Griffin LaRochelle would find Josh Gagnon for the opening goal of the campaign, giving Western New England a 1-0 lead with 8:49 to play in the frame. SLU would quickly answer with their first goal of the season as Ted Wilson would earn an assist on a Daniel Mahoney goal, evening the score at one. SLU would win the next faceoff and march down the field to score their second goal of the game and take their first lead of the game when Sean Wiseman beat Western New England's starting goalkeeper Braden Civiello. Chris Catuosco would win the next faceoff, which would directly lead to a goal for Western New England as Gagnon earned his second of the game for the Golden Bears, drawing the game even. The Saints would score again, picking up their third tally of the game with 5:23 remaining in the opening quarter, seeing Caleb Torres scoring to give SLU a 3-2 lead. That would be all the scoring in the opening 15 minutes of the game as both teams would lock down on defense, keeping the score at 3-2 after one. The Saints opened the game with seven shots to Western New England's six. Both teams took four shots on goal while SLU had the only man-up opportunity. Braden Civiello made one save for the Golden Bears in the opening 15 minutes while Michael Marinello collected two.

The Golden Bears would fall short on their opening possession of the second quarter after getting a faceoff win, while St. Lawrence would score on their opening chance to take a 4-2 lead as Mahoney found the back of the net for the second time in the game. Jack Houdlen would win the ground ball on the next faceoff for WNE, leading to a Griffin LaRochelle tally, bringing Western New England back within one with 13:12 to play in the second quarter. The Golden Bears would have their chances to get the game even before SLU would strike again but would not be able to find the back of the net as turnovers and three saves from SLU's Marinello would keep the Golden Bears from scoring. Western New England would see the Saints score back-to-back goals in less than a minute span, taking a 6-3 lead with 7:33 remaining in the quarter. Western New England's defense would force a shot clock violation on SLU with 4:12 remaining, allowing the Golden Bears to set up their offense, which they did by taking a timeout and scoring with 2:15 to play when Thomas Labbe had his first goal of the season, getting WNE back within two, 6-4. Saint Lawrence would quickly turn the ball over on their next possession after winning the faceoff, but the Golden Bears would not be able to get a shot off before the final buzzer of the half went out, keeping the scoring at 6-4 after the first 30 minutes of play. Saint Lawrence would have a spurt of goals in the second quarter that would push them ahead of WNE. SLU outshot the Golden Bears 10-7, but Western New England had the 5-4 advantage on goal. Both teams won three faceoffs each and scooped seven ground balls each. WNE turned the ball over three times, SLU six.

A scoring flurry in the third quarter would see Saint. Lawrence start off with their seventh goal of the late morning as Mahoney would score his hat trick goal for the Saints, putting SLU in front 7-4. SLU would quickly make it 8-4 in what looked to be a runaway victory for Saint Lawrence when David Herlihy scored his first goal of the season at the 12:44 mark of the quarter, giving St. Lawrence an 8-4 lead. Western New England would chip away and battle back, getting a faceoff victory from Chris Catuosco and scoring on a man-up chance as Zachary Mein picked up a goal on a pass from Jack Houlden, giving WNE their fifth of the morning, trailing 8-5. Ryan Quinlan would cause a turnover, leading to a scoring chance for Western New England, but a turnover on the next WNE possession would give the ball back to the Saints. SLU would not be able to score while no scoring would happen for over five minutes in the game until Logan Jenkins found the back of the net for the Golden Bears, scoring his first career goal in blue and gold, getting Western New England within two goals, trailing 8-6. The Golden Bears would again be the next to score in the game after Kai McDonald caused a turnover and picked up the ground ball. WNE would come flying down the field, set up their offense, and see Max Rudgers score his first of the season on an assist from Josh Gagnon, getting Western New England back within striking distance, trailing by just a goal, 8-7, with 4:39 to play. Western New England would win the next faceoff, but solid defense from SLU would keep WNE from scoring. Neither team would come up with a goal in the final four minutes of play in the third quarter, leaving time for an exciting fourth frame. WNE took nine shots in the third frame, scoring once while a man-up. Both teams grabbed eight ground balls while WNE was successful on four of their five clears.

Saint Lawrence would open the fourth quarter with the ball, but they would pick up a shot clock violation, the second one in which WNE has caused in the morning tilt. Western New England would score on their first possession of the game, tying the game at eight when Thomas Labbe picked up a pass from Zachary Mein, firing home the game-tying goal, coming back from four goals down to even the score. Despite the momentum fully in Western New England's favor, SLU would not let the Golden Bears take their first lead since the opening goal of the game went WNE's way as the Saints got a save from their goalkeeper and went down the field and saw Sean Wiseman come up with the tie-breaking goal, giving SLU a 9-8 lead with 11:52 to play in the quarter. The one-goal lead for the Saints wouldn't linger long as Catuosco continued to be clutch in the faceoff circle for the Golden Bears, winning the draw and allowing WNE to come up with offense. After Josh Gagnon's shot was blocked, Western New England would come up with a second chance and would not mistake it, evening the game at nine when Griffin LaRochelle picked up a goal, his second of the game, tying the game once more at nine. Again, the Saints would not allow the Golden Bears to take the lead, scoring their first goal while a man-up in the game as Bobby Wells scored for SLU. The faceoff ensuing would again go WNE's way, but a Jack Houlden shot would be saved by Michael Marinello, keeping the Golden Beas from tying the game. SLU's next chance would be denied by Houlden as the WNE senior would take the ball away, leading to WNE's tenth goal of the day, tying the score with 8:20 to play. Western New England would use another timeout to set up a chance that would be capitalized on as Thomas Labbe had his third goal of the morning. Ryan Quinlan would cause a turnover on the next SLU possession, allowing Western New England to come away with a chance to take the lead in the game. The Golden Bears would fall short in doing so as Houlden's shot would be saved, while a turnover on WNE with 6:44 left would give the ball back to the Saints, who capitalized on their next chance to take an 11-10 lead with 5:36 to play. Western New England would have multiple chances to come away with the tying goal of the game, but Michael Marinello would stand tall between the pipes for the Saints. WNE would finally crack the Saints keeper to again tie the game at 11 with 1:19 remaining as Josh Gagnon had his third goal of the game for Western New England. St. Lawrence would have the final chance on offense in the game, taking four straight shots to win the game. Bobby Wells and Daniel Mahoney's chances would sail wide while Cam Croasdaile's final chance at the buzzer would be saved by Braden Civiello, who would take Western New England into overtime with the stop. WNE took ten shots to SLU's eight in the fourth. WNE placed nine of their ten shots on goal. The Saints scooped a game high 13 ground balls in the frame. 

In the overtime session, both teams would have possession of the ball three times. SLU would turn over their possession all three times without recording a shot on goal. WNE would take just one shot, coming with just four seconds left in the first overtime frame, as Logan Jenkins's chance would sail wide. The two teams would need a second overtime to decide the winner. Each team had a ground ball in the first OT session. WNE would start with the ball in the second OT session after SLU would be whistled for an offsides penalty to start the frame, but the Golden Bears would be doomed by a turnover, which would be their final possession of the game as St. Lawrence would drive down the field and score the game winning goal in the double overtime session as Jamie Rosenzweig would score on an assist from Bobby Wells, winning the game for the Saints 12-11. 

Inside the Lines:

• A thrilling Saturday morning contest would fall St. Lawrence's way in double overtime from The Country School in Greenwich. SLU would win the game by a final score of 12-11. 
• Josh Gagnon picked up three goals and an assist to lead Western New England with four points. Gagnon also collected six shots, five on goal, and two ground balls. 
• Thomas Labbe had three goals in the morning game, scoring on all three of his shots on goal. 
• Griffin LaRochelle also had a multi-goal outing, picking up two goals to go along with one assist. 
• Chris Catuosco won 11 faceoffs for Western New England in the loss. Catuosco took all but one draw for WNE in the game. 
• Ryan Quinlan had six ground balls scooped and caused two turnovers. Michael Knapp led Western New England with three CTs in the game and also had two ground balls. 
• In his WNE debut, Braden Civiello made four saves for the blue and gold. 
• WNE outshot SLU 33-31 in the game and 22-16 on goal. Western New England caused 12 turnovers as a team.
• St. Lawrence was led by Daniel Mahoney, who scored four times. Bobby Wells picked up a goal and three assists, collecting four points overall. 
• SLU downs WNE men's lacrosse for the eighth straight meeting. This morning's one goal game was the closest battle of the two teams in their series history. 

Up Next on the Schedule:

• The Golden Bears are back in action on Tuesday, February 18 at 4:00 PM, traveling to Keene State College for non-conference action.