BROOKVILLE, N.Y. (April 28, 2007) - Senior Nick Dello-Iacono made 11 of his 16 saves in the first half, while freshman Pete Blackmer broke a 5-5 tie with his first collegiate goal with 11:51 left in the fourth period, giving the fifth-ranked C.W. Post men's lacrosse team a 9-5 victory over visiting No. 8 Molloy, on "Senior Day" at Hickox Field.

Prior to the game, Rob Blount, Dello-Iacono, Jason Hoover, Anthony Merendino, Chase Safarowic and Izzy Sanchez were honored by the C.W. Post team for their contributions to the Pioneers program. The team has gone 30-20 (.600) over the last four seasons, advanced to the 2005 NCAA Division II Championships, and won last season's New York Collegiate Athletic Conference (now East Coast Conference) title.

After a scoreless first period, C.W. Post (9-3, 3-2 ECC) scored four straight goals in the second period to take a 4-0 lead. Sophomore Greg Cerar (1 g, 1 a, 4 gb) netted his 24th goal of the year with 11:52 left in the half, before junior Matt Dimler (1 g, 1 a) tallied 9:08 left. Charles Senn netted a man-up tally with 8:30 remaining, before Dimler fed Rob Renetta (1 g, 2 a, 2 gb) to push the lead to 4-0 with 6:36 to go in the half.

Molloy (8-4, 2-3 ECC) got on the board when Stanley Jackson netted the first of his two goals on the day with 4:00 to play in the half. After Matt Merritt (2 g, 1 a) finished off a pass from Renetta with 1:59 remaining, the Lions scored three straight to close to within 5-4 at halftime. Tim Harrington scored with 1:51 to go off a face-off win from Billy Brown, before Jeremy Kyrkostas and Jeffrey Flandina dented the net with 1:14 and 0:31 left, respectively.

The visitors continued their run with 26 seconds left in the third period, tying the game at 5-all when Jackson scored an unassisted tally.

Blackmer scored off a pass from Rob Blount with 11:51 to go, giving the hosts the lead for good at 6-5. Merritt (from Renetta) doubled the lead to 7-5 with 4:17 remaining, before Joe Meo and Merendino rounded out the scoring.

Molloy out-shot the Pioneers 43-27, held a 41-40 edge in ground balls, and won 9-of-16 face-offs. The teams combined for 58 turnovers (31 by C.W. Post) and cleared the ball at around 75 percent-plus efficiency (Molloy: 23-for-30; C.W. Post: 25-for-31).

Lions goalie Rob Humann made nine saves in taking the loss.

Head coach John Jez and the Pioneers wrap up their regular season next Saturday (May 5), when they travel to Oakdale, N.Y., for a 1:00 p.m. ECC contest at Dowling, which will be played at St. John's University's Eastern Long Island campus.

Score by Period       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
Molloy..............  0  4  1  0 -  5
C.W. Post...........  0  5  0  4 -  9
 
Molloy SCORING:
GOALS: Jackson, Stanley 2; Kyrkostas, Jeremy 1; Harrington, Tim 1;
       Flandina, Jeffrey 1.
ASSISTS: Brown, Billy 1.
 
C.W. Post SCORING:
GOALS: Merritt, Matt 2; Renetta, Rob 1; Dimler, Matt 1; Cerar, Greg 1;
       Blackmer, Pete 1; Senn, Charles 1; Merendino, Anthony 1; Meo, Joe 1.
ASSISTS: Renetta, Rob 2; Blount, Rob 1; Cerar, Greg 1; Dimler, Matt 1;
         Merritt; Matt 1.
 
SHOTS BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
Molloy.............. 10 19  7  7 - 43
C.W. Post...........  2  7  8 10 - 27
 
GROUND BALLS BY PRD   1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
Molloy.............. 10 13  9  9 - 41
C.W. Post...........  6 10 11 13 - 40
 
FACE-OFFS BY PRD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
Molloy..............  1-1   6-9   0-1   2-5  -  9-16
C.W. Post...........  0-1   3-9   1-1   3-5  -  7-16
 
CLEARS BY PERIOD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
Molloy..............  7-8   4-5   8-11  4-6  - 23-30
C.W. Post........... 10-10  3-5   7-9   5-7  - 25-31
 
EXTRA-MAN OPPS         1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
Molloy..............  0-0   0-2   0-1   0-0  -  0-3
C.W. Post...........  0-0   1-3   0-1   0-1  -  1-5
 
SAVES BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
Molloy..............  1  0  5  3 -  9
C.W. Post...........  4  7  2  3 - 16
 
TURNOVERS BY PRD      1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
Molloy..............  5  4 10  8 - 27
C.W. Post...........  8  6  9  8 - 31
 
PENALTIES - Molloy 7/6:00; C.W. Post 4/3:30.

2007-04-28