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Aquinas Opens with a Win
March 27, 2008  -  special  - As expected, the weather for tonight's Aquinas vs. St. Francis (Section Six) game was dismal at best but we're back to playing the game and we are in up-state New York. Aquinas won or tied every quarter and defeated the Red Raiders 9-5 and Coach Jerry Dawes was pleased. "After a win like today, we are enthusiastic for the rest of the season."ref

St. Francis opened up the scoring with 5:49 remaining in the first quarter. Grant Garvin picked up a ground ball and fired a shot passed Kraig Heston. Aquinas scored the next two goals (Anthony Bianchi and Cameron Corsaro, both assisted by Austin Gorman). The Little Irish took a 2-1 lead into the second quarter.

Aquinas also won the second quarter, outscoring the Red Raiders 3-2. Two additional goals by Corsaro and one by Marc Brondon ended the quarter for the Little Irish. Scoring for St. Francis were Matthew Ganci and Ben Garvin.

Aquinas continued after the halftime break with the first two goals of the third quarter extending their lead to 7-3. With six minutes left in the half the Little Irish had the game under control. The Red Raiders scored two more goals to as the quarter ended (Paul Eaton from Ganci and Connor Bernas from Kevin English), but those were the final Red Raider goals of the game. Aquinas tacked on two additional goals in the fourth (Gorman and Casey Vogl).

The Little Irish used the transition game to their advantage both offensively and defensively. Aquinas cleared at 82% while they rode at 39%. The Red Raider had trouble clearing the ball on numerous key plays, giving the Little Irish a second, and sometime third, opportunity on offense. Additionally, three of their nine goals were on fast-break situations.

Another key factor was that Aquinas significantly out shot the Red Raiders (43-21) and dominating the ground ball game (45-32) as well. At the face-off the Little Irish dominated. Leading the charge were Neil Foley (5/6 for 83%) and Vogl (6/9 for 67%).

In the cage, Heston had a strong game. It was his first opportunity to start for the Little Irish, an opportunity not lost on him "I have been waiting two years to start and am ecstatic that we won. The defense played well. The whole team played well." Heston finished the game with 8s/5ga (62%).

Jonathon Lawless, who played for the Western Team in the Empire State Games, started the game for the Red Raiders. Lawless had a number of amazing point blank saves that kept his team in the game. He finished the day with 16s/9ga (64%).

Scoring for Aquinas were Corsaro (3g-1a), Gorman (2g-2a), Bianchi (1g-1a), Vogl (1g-1a), Jasen Torres (1g) and Brondon (1g).

Scoring for St. Francis were Ganci (1g-1a), Grant Garvin (1g), Ben Garvin (1g), Joseph Rautenstrauch (1g), Bernas (1g), Eaton (1g) and English (1a).

fullstatsThe full game stats are available here.

This year, SportsFive reporters will be producing comprehensive statistics for some of the games covered. The game sheet will be attached to the game reports as PDF files. For more information about the stats program, see Kyle's Byline.