EMMITSBURG, Md. -- Sophomore goalie and reigning Southern Conference Men’s Lacrosse Defensive player of the Week Benny Pugh (Powhatan, Virginia / Woodberry Forest School) recorded his 15th save of the game on a potential game-tying goal with a minute remaining as the Richmond Spiders won their first road contest of the season, 8-7 at Waldron Family Stadium over Mount St. Mary’s Wednesday.
Sophomore J.P. Forester (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan) recorded his second-straight hat trick and added an assist in the victory, to push the Spiders to 4-2 on the season and record the team’s second two-game win streak of the year. The Mountaineers dropped to 2-4 on the season.
The game was back and forth early. Forester got his assist on the first goal of the game, by Dan Ginestro (Syracuse, New York) a little less than 90 seconds in for the lead.
After Mount St. Mary’s posted two goals for their first lead of the game midway through the first, the Spiders scored three straight goals to finish out the quarter for a 4-2 lead.
MSM posted a pair of quick goals to start the second to tie the game, but Forester and sophomore Mitch Goldberg (Damascus, Maryland), playing about an hour from home, pushed the lead back out to two and the Spiders never trailed after that point.
“For this to be our first road trip near the middle of March, I am happy with the way we played,” said head coach Dan Chemotti.
“We supported each other tremendously on defense and that’s a credit to Coach (Paul) Richards and the way he had those guys organized. And Ben Pugh came up huge today. He has been such a constant for us. Coach (Steve) Layne has been working hard with him and the work is paying off. J.P. is getting better every single day and he doing all of the things we are asking of him and we are able to rotate four attackmen in there which has been effective for us.”
The Spiders won just four of the 19 faceoffs, but the defense came up big, causing 11 turnovers. Sophomore Brendan Hynes (Mahopac, New York) set a season high with five caused turnovers in the game.
“We se the tone that we are not going to take a break for the entire 60 minutes,” added Chemotti. “We slowed them down a little bit, but they handled it pretty well and had a lot of poise.”
Richmond will host No. 2 North Carolina this Saturday at 1 p.m. Admission is free.
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