Firebirds Fall to Unrelenting No. 3 NYIT

OLD WESTBURY, NY – The No. 3 nationally ranked NYIT Bears scored early and often as they defeated the University of the District of Columbia men's lacrosse team, 27-6 on Saturday in East Coast Conference play at President's Stadium.

NYIT (6-1, 3-0 ECC) raced out to an 11-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 20-5 advantage at halftime. The Bears' top three leading scorers, Luke Miller, Shawn Murphy and George Schultz, continued to pour it on in the second half as head coach Bill Dunn allowed the Bears to run up their lead on the 2^nd-year Firebirds men's lacrosse program en-route to a 21-goal final margin of victory.

The Firebirds, who have played two top-5 teams in the nation back-to-back this week, fell to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in league play with the loss. Sophomore Quinton Pavan (Childhood Education – Port Coquitlam, BC/Blue Ridge HS) registered his team-best 7^th and 8^th goals of the season in his 3^rd multi-goal game this year. Sophomore Brock Thompson-Marshall (Business Management – Sooke, BC/Claremont Secondary) notched his 2^nd multi-goal game of the year as well with his 3^rd and 4^th goals of the season. Meanwhile, sophomore Chase Fraser (Elementary Education – Aldergrove, BC/Blue Ridge HS) added one goal and took a game-high nine shots.

Freshman Teilen Celentano (Accounting – Ottawa, ON/E.S.P. Loui-Riel) won 14-of-24 faceoffs while freshman Darien McPhail Millard (Psychology – East Windsor, NJ/Union CC) won 6-of-12. UDC collectively won 20-of-36 faceoffs; however, the Firebirds had 25 turnovers and only 11-of-19 converted clear attempts.

UDC will host ECC foe Mercy on Wednesday, March 25^th at 3 p.m. The game will be played at Long Bridge Park in Arlington, VA.