Box Score PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. – Senior goalie Keaton Roarick (Old Saybrook, Conn./Old Saybrook) made 14 saves and Bentley turned in a standout defensive performance to defeat No. 11 nationally ranked Pace 7-3 in the first round of the Northeast-10 Men's Lacrosse Championship on Saturday.
The Falcons held the Setters, who came into the game with the NE10's second highest scoring offense, to a season-low three goals. Pace also came into the game with the top three leaders in the NE10 in points and held them to a combined two points.
The Falcons, the No. 5 seed, will meet the No. 1 seed Adelphi in the semifinals on Wednesday.
Bentley never trailed in this game after they jumped out to a 2-0 first quarter lead on a pair of goals by senior midfielder Ben Baldasaro (Exeter, N.H./Exeter).
It became a 3-0 lead when senior Ryan Birch (Walpole, Mass./Walpole) scored at the 14:20 mark of the 2nd quarter.
Following that goal, sophomore Cam Bartolomeo (Meriden, Conn./Xavier) won the ensuing faceoff, scooped up the ground ball and scored on his own to make it a 4-0 lead.
Pace got on the board with goals by Anthony Caputo at 9:59 and Jake Veres at 1:03, but Bentley still led 4-2 at halftime as Roarick had eight saves at the break.
Caputo opened the second half scoring with a goal at 12:41 of the 3rd quarter to cut Pace's deficit to 4-3. But that was the Setters' last goal of the game, as Bentley kept them off the scoreboard for the final 27-plus minutes.
Freshmen Nate Alviti (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) and David Gagnon (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) scored at 6:01 and 4:18 of the 3rd quarter to give Bentley a 6-3 lead.
Bentley limited Pace to just one shot on goal in the fourth quarter and they forced the Setters into four turnovers in the final quarter.
The win was sealed when Birch scored with 15 seconds remaining for the final 7-3 margin.
Bentley's faceoff duo of Bartolomeo and junior Jake Tyska (Natick, Mass./Wayland) dominated. Tyska went 7-7 and had five ground balls and Bartolomeo went 5-6 with four ground balls.
Freshman Alex Parton (Victor, N.Y./Victor) led the team with three caused turnovers.
