Photo Credit: UMass Lowell
Paced by four, first-half goals by freshman Sean Tyrrell (Calgary, Alberta), The UMass Lowell River Hawks held on for a historic first Division I victory defeating NJIT, 9-7, Saturday afternoon at Lutbekin Field.
“It’s great to get our program’s first ever Division I win,” said Head Coach Ed Stephenson. “It was a great battle between two brand new programs. We did well enough in the first half to win the game and close it out. NJIT came back strong in the second half but our kids did a great job finishing it out.”
For the second time this season on the road, the River Hawks (1-3) came away with the first goal of the contest. Tyrrell took the feed from sophomore Chris Litchfield (Burlington, Mass.) and fired home his fourth goal of the season at the 12:31 mark of the first quarter.
Tyrrell added his second of the game with 6:03 to go in the first quarter and freshman Matthew Balter (West Sand Lake, N.Y.) beat the clock with two seconds left for a 3-0 lead after 15 minutes of play.
The River Hawks momentum carried over into the second quarter. Tyrrell and fellow freshman Cory Highfield (Georgetown, Ontario) scored 12 seconds apart at the beginning stages of the quarter to build the lead to 5-0 and Tyrrell increased the advantage to six at the 9:44 mark.
“I thought Sean was well prepared for the game and it showed with his five-point performance,” said Stephenson. “He executed and shared the ball very well and is becoming one of the guys we count on game in, game out.”
NJIT (0-4) stopped the bleeding with 8:21 left in the half courtesy of a goal from freshman Liam Derkasch, but UMass Lowell responded with goals from Jon Phillips (Delta, B.C.) and Liam Rafferty (Long Beach, N.Y.) to take an 8-1 lead into halftime.
The Highlanders began a second-half surge with two goals in the third quarter by freshmen Tyler Baggett and Joe Lomeli.
NJIT scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 8-5 before freshman Keenan Koswin (Winnipeg, Manitoba) thwarted the momentum with his first collegiate goal.
Two more goals by the Highlanders made the score 9-7 with 5:15 remaining, but the River Hawks defense held strong for the remainder of the game to secure their first victory of the season.
The River Hawks return home to face Providence on March 10 at 4 p.m.
