ROCHESTER, NY – RIT graduate student Luke Pilcher scored five assists and six points in the Tigers 23-16 win over Babson in the third round of the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship, Saturday.
 
Senior midfielder Kaden Brunson scored five goals, while graduate student attack Jake Erickson tallied three goals and an assist. Graduate student midfielder John Mozrall had a goal and four assists, senior midfielder Dylan Bruno had two goals and two assists and junior attack Clifford Gaston finished with two goals and an assist.
 
Graduate student face-off specialist Allyn French won 23-of-39 draws, had a goal and an assist and led the Tigers with 14 ground balls. Senior defensemen Hunter FitzGibbons and Tanner Winklemann each caused two turnovers.
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• FitzGibbons scored off the opening face-off to give RIT a 1-0 lead 14 seconds into the game.
• Bennett Smith tied the game on his goal before Brunson gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead on his first goal of the game with 11:43 to play in the first quarter.
• Babson ran off four straight goals, taking a 5-2 lead on Christian Brofft's goal with 6:29 to play in the opening frame.
• Pilcher scored twice and Bruno had a goal and an assist in a four-goal RIT run to end the first quarter. Pilcher scored off an assist from Bruno with 2:34 remaining in the quarter to give RIT a 6-5 lead.
• French won the opening face-off of the second quarter and scored, while Bruno scored in transition on RIT's next possession off an assist from junior midfielder Dominic Comella to extend RIT's lead to 8-5.
• Camden Matthews broke the Tiger's run with his goal with 10:51 remaining in the half, but Erickson and Pilcher scored back-to-back goals to give RIT a 10-6 lead.
• Jacob Tauss scored to make it 10-7, but Gaston scored off an assist from Mozrall with 6:12 to play to give RIT an 11-7 lead.
• Smith and Jared Rainville tallied back-to-back goals, cutting RIT's lead to 11-9 on Smith's goal with 1:49 to play in the half.
• Senior long-stick midfielder Caleb Commandant scored off an assist from FitzGibbons 14 seconds into the third quarter to give RIT a 12-9 lead, while Erickson tallied an unassisted goal to extend the Tiger's lead to 13-9.
• Pilcher scored two of his five goals in the third quarter, including one with five seconds remaining off an assist from junior midfielder Sean Tierney to give RIT a 16-12 lead.
• Bruno Batty scored 53 seconds into the fourth quarter to cut RIT's lead to 16-13.
• Sophomore midfielder Chase Bruno scored twice and Erickson once in a three-goal Tiger's run. Bruno scored off a feed from Pilcher to give RIT a 19-13 lead with 10:42 to play.
• Luke Wang scored with 8:41 remaining before Gaston scored off a feed from French to give RIT a 20-14 lead.
• Smith and Grey Sunderland tallied back-to-back goals, cutting RIT's lead to 20-16 on Sunderland's goal with 8:14 to play.
• Brunson scored the final three goals of the game, including one with 3:42 to play to make it a 23-16 final.

 
GAME NOTES:

• RIT outshot Babson, 60-48.
• RIT was 23-of-25 on clears and had 46 ground balls.
• RIT sophomore goalie Alex Zborowski made 13 saves in net to improve to 18-2 on the season.
• RIT advances to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the 16th time in program history.

 
WHAT'S NEXT
RIT awaits its quarterfinal opponent to be played next weekend (May 17-19). Stay tuned to https://ritathletics.com to see who the Tigers will face and where.