GENEVA, N.Y.—The nationally-ranked Hobart College lacrosse team picked up its sixth straight win, defeating St. Bonaventure University 18-8 under the lights on Boswell Field at David J Urick Stadium tonight. The Statesmen, who are No. 20 in the USILA poll and No. 19 in the Inside Lacrosse poll, scored eight straight goals during the first half and never looked back.
Junior
Eric Holden led the charge for Hobart (8-1) with a game-high five points on four goals and an assist. Senior
Koko Avedisian added a career-high four points on two goals and two assists. Four other Statesmen finished the night with three points, including senior
Chris Aslanian, who scored twice and recorded the 86th assist of his career, the most by a Division I Statesman.
At the X, senior
Matthew Pedicine was locked in, winning 18-of-21 faceoffs and collecting a game-high 16 ground balls. He has 110 ground balls on the season, five behind the Hobart Division I era season record set by Eric Curry '96 in 1996. Defensively, junior
PJ Delpha and first-year
Mark Synnott each recorded two caused turnovers.
First-year Cian Collins led the Bonnies (0-8) with four points on two goals and two assists. First-year defenseman Zach Belter picked up a team-high six ground balls and caused two turnovers. In goal, first-years Brett Dobson and Ben Mazur each played a half and both recorded 10 saves.
St. Bonaventure was able to control the clock in the first quarter, taking its only lead of the night on first-year John Fox's goal with about five minutes left. Two minutes later, first-year
Jason Knox scored the first of his two goals in the game to tie the contest and kick-start the game's decisive run.
Holden started the second quarter with a natural hat trick, scoring three times in the first two minutes. He gave Hobart the lead for good with his first strike, 47 seconds into the quarter. Aslanian notched his record-breaking assist on Holden's second goal. Holden completed his personal three-goal run with an extra-man goal at the 13:10 mark. Avedisian, Aslanian, first-year
Derrek Madonna and senior
Bryan Hancock capped Hobart's run to make it an 8-1 game with eight minutes to go to halftime.
The teams traded goals heading into halftime with the Statesmen out in front 9-3.
Hobart, which tied its Division I era game record for shots with 70, fired off 28 in the second quarter alone. The Statesmen also had 19 ground balls in the second quarter and won 10-of-11 faceoffs.
Holden and Aslanian went back-to-back to start the third quarter scoring to give Hobart an 11-3 lead. It's the ninth time this season, the Statesmen have scored at least 10 goals in a game, the program's longest such streak since 1998 when they hit double digits in the first nine games of the season.
Hobart cruised through the second half with senior
Gerald Flood, junior
Jimmy Lampert and first-year
Brian Mitrow recording their first goals of the season after halftime.
On the night, the Statesmen outshot the Bonnies 70-25, enjoyed a 46-21 advantage in ground balls, won 23-of-30 faceoffs and committed seven fewer turnovers (20-13).
Hobart will be back on Boswell Field on Tuesday, April 2, when the Statesmen welcome No. 8 Syracuse to Boswell Field for the annual Kraus-Simmons Trophy game. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m.
