POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – The RIT men's lacrosse team (8-0, 2-0 Liberty League) won its eighth straight game to start the 2018 season, rolling to a 19-8 victory over Liberty League rival Vassar College (1-6, 0-2 Liberty League) at Weinburg Turf Field on Saturday afternoon.
 
RIT fell behind 2-1 before knotting the game at 2-2 to end the opening quarter. The Tigers out-scored Vassar 5-1 in the second quarter to build a 7-3 lead after halftime and scored 12 second half goals to pull away.
 
Balanced scoring was the key for RIT, as nine players recorded at least two points. Aidan Milburn (Vancouver, British Columbia/Sentinel Secondary) had three goals and an assist, while Kyle Killen (Peterborough, Ontario/Crestwood Secondary) added two goals and two assists. Shawn Nally (Rochester, NY/McQuaid) and Cam Issac scored three goals apiece, while Ryan Barnable (Whitby, Ontario/Donald A. Wilson) and Matt Pogue (Mississauga, Ontario/St. Paul Secondary) had two goals and an assist. Eli Salama (Coquitlam, British Columbia/Dr. Charles Best) added two goals, while Jay Vakiener (Fairport, NY/Fairport) dished out two helpers. Quinn Commandant (Rockwood, Ontario/The Kiski School) and Andrew Doktor (Rochester, NY/Eastridge) also scored for the Tigers.
 
Jimmy Spillane (River Vale, NJ/Pascack Valley) won 14-of-28 face-offs and had seven ground balls for the Tigers, while Alex Maruna (Medina, OH/St. Ignatius), Nally, Zach Ursu (Mono, Ontario/The Kiski School) and Trevor Smyth (Orangeville, Ontario/The Kiski School) caused a pair of turnovers apiece. In net, Walker Hare (Libertyville, IL/Libertyville) made seven saves over the first 51 minutes to earn the win. Holden McDonald (Toronto, Ontatrio/St. Mary Catholic) stopped 4-of-5 shots over the final 8:43.
 
Tomas Meade led the Brewers with three goals, while Michael Mullen had a goal and two assists. Matthew Lowery, Nick Diamond, James Thomas and Dekker Stebel also scored for Vassar. Lowery won 14-of-25 face-offs and grabbed five ground balls. Matt Boyd made 14 saves in defeat.
 
RIT out-shot Vassar, 56-29, including 31-10 over the second and third quarters. RIT won the ground ball battle, 30-23 and forced Vassar turnovers. RIT was successful on 20-of-23 clears and held Vassar to just 13 clears on 23 chances. RIT was 1-for-3 with the man-up, while Vassar was 2-for-7.
 
RIT got off to an uncharacteristically slow start, as Vassar led 2-1 late in the opening quarter, before Issac tied the game off a feed from Barnable to make it 2-2 after one quarter of play. Issac and Pogue would score 15 seconds apart early in the second quarter to give RIT a 4-2 lead.
 
Meade scored his second goal of the game with 12:49 in the second quarter to cut the RIT lead to 4-3. RIT would find another gear however, scoring seven straight goals over a span of 19 minutes into the third quarter to go up 11-3. Vassar would try to stay close with three consecutive goals later in the period to make it 11-6, but RIT went on another run, scoring eight of the next nine tallies to pull away.
 
It is the fourth time in the last five years that RIT has started a season with an 8-0 mark. The Tigers have now won all seven meetings between the two schools.
 
The Tigers look to stay perfect in 2018 on Tuesday at 4 p.m., with a road contest at former Empire 8 rival Nazareth College.