ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT (18-1) men's lacrosse team came up one goal shy of tying the record for goals in a game, tallying 29 on Wednesday as the Tigers defeated John Carroll University (12-6) in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship at sunny Tiger Stadium. The Tigers advance to the second round for the seventh consecutive season and will host Amherst College in the second round on Saturday, May 14 at Tiger Stadium.

A season-high 17 different Tigers scored a goal on Wednesday, led by Kyle Sterzin (Fairport, NY/Fairport) who had four goals. Chad Levick (Newmarket, Ontario/The Hill Academy) and Dave Shuster (Columbus, OH/St. Charles Prep) each scored three goals, and Ryan Lee (Sharon, Ontario/The Hill Academy), Zack Thompson (Orangeville, Ontario/Culver Academy), and Beau Riley (Homer, NY/Homer) each scored a pair of goals. Aidan Milburn (Vancouver, British Columbia/Sentinel Secondary) led RIT with three assists, and Lee, Braden Wallace (Oakville, Ontario/Abbey Park), Riley and Alex Bodin (Coquitlam, British Columbia/Dr. Charles Best) each had a pair of assists. Lee went over the 60-goal mark for the second straight season and now has 61. Levick hit the 50-goal mark in today's win.

"We got off to a bit of a slow start," said RIT head coach Jake Coon. "But once we got into our rhythm, I thought we played pretty well. We won some key ground balls and I was happy with the effort of the guys today."

RIT held a 50-23 shot advantage, and won the ground ball battle, 55-24. The Tigers won 30-of-38 face-offs and were 16-of-18 on clearing attempts. The Tigers went 4-of-4 on man-up. Jarryd Lee (Melbourne, Australia/St. Leonards) got the start in net, making 10 saves to improve to 9-1 on the season.

Steven Ricci (Rochester, NY/Pittsford Sutherland) won 13-of-16 face-offs and had seven ground balls. Patrick Hannigan (Hanover, MA/Hanover) caused two of RIT's seven caused turnovers.

Declan O'Grady led John Carroll with two goals. Michael Hubert added a goal and an assist, while Collin Rice had a goal and two assists. Logan Calhoun also scored for the Blue Streaks who were making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Kyle Lake took the loss in net, making four saves. Jacob Betz played the second half and made five saves.

RIT led 5-2 after the first quarter, tallied a program-record 13 goals in the second quarter to lead 18-3 at the half. RIT added six goals in the third quarter, and five in the fourth quarter for the 29-6 win.

Sterzin and Alec Sulesky (Medina, OH/Medina) gave RIT an early 3-0 lead. Sterzin scored twice early, one off an assist from Wallace, the other from Riley to make it 3-0 Tigers. John Carroll responded with two straight goals, cutting the RIT lead to 3-2 on Rice's goal with 4:47 to play in the quarter. Sterzin tacked on two more goals off assists from Lee to give the Tigers a 5-2 lead after the first quarter of play.

RIT's offense came to life in the second quarter, exploding for 13 goals. O'Grady opened the scoring in the second quarter, scoring off an assist from Rice to cut the RIT lead to 5-3. Nine different Tigers scored in the second quarter, led by Levick, who scored three times.

Drew Tosaya (Kenmore, WA/Inglemoor), Anthony Contento (Homer, NY/Homer), Dave Shuster (Columbus, OH/St. Charles Prep) and John Hill (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) all scored for RIT in the third quarter, with Hill tallying twice. Thompson, Bodin, Hill, Brendan MacDonald (Georgetown, ON/Trinity-Pawling) and Shuster all scored in the fourth quarter for RIT.

The Tigers have scored in double figures in all 19 games this season and have tallied at least 15 goals in 10 straight games. The Tigers have scored 20 or more goals in five of the last six games, out-scoring their opponents 135-36 in that stretch.
 
RIT is making its seventh straight appearance and 18th overall in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are now 20-17 all-time in NCAA Tournament games, and 8-5 overall in first round games. RIT is 15-4 at home all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Today marked the first meeting between the two schools.

Stay tuned to www.ritathletics.com for the time of Saturday's second round game at Tiger Stadium.