April 26, 2008

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QUEENS, N.Y. - Holding on to a seven goal lead, its largest lead over any team this season, the St. John's lacrosse team never looked back as it tallied its second conference victory, 10-7, over the Fairfield Stags amidst Saturday afternoon's senior day festivities.

Senior Tom Michaelsen led the team in scoring with a season high of five points on one goal and four assists. His twin brother Trevor Michaelsen, a junior, was second in scoring with two goals and one assist. Senior Justin O'Donnell and juniors Malcolm Miles and Tom Manes also scored two goals each.

With the win, the Red Storm matched its all-time conference win record and evened up the all-time series with Fairfield at three games each. The victory was the first ECAC win against the Stags since Fairfield joined the league in 2006.

St. John's advances to 2-5 in the ECAC and 2-10 overall. Fairfield drops to 4-9 overall and 2-5 in the league.

Miles put the Red Storm on the board first, at 11:36 in the first period with his eighth goal of the season fed by Trevor Michalesen. Miles' goal marked the sixth time this season that St. John's scored first.

Fairfield answered five minutes later as Chris Ajemian scored his first of two goals assisted by Travis Nelson.

St. John's quickly fired back as sophomore Reggie Davis registered the first assist of his career, passing the ball off to Tom Michaelsen who scored 14 seconds into the Red Storm possession, sparking a six goal scoring run which was to follow.

O'Donnell and Michaelsen connected after a successful Red Storm clear with a little more than five minutes left in the first period to advance the score to 3-1.

Junior Dom DeNapoli picked up the ground ball rebound off the post and cleared the ball out of the Red Storm's defensive box to junior Jamal Jones. Jones quickly fed the ball to Trevor Michaelsen who shot it past Fairfield goaltender Jeff Cilente, for his first of two goals for the day.

With eight seconds left in the period, senior Rob Gannon netted his 11th goal of the season to give the Red Storm a 5-1 lead going into the second period.

Coming in after a time out with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter, Manes scored his first goal of the day unassisted past Fairfield's reserve goaltender Joe Marra.

Miles turned in his second goal of the gamed, dished from Tom Michaelsen to give St. John's a six goal lead with 7:49 left in the half.

With just under six minutes left in the half, senior defensive midfielder Chris DeMarco notched the first point of his career as he cleared the ball down the field to Trevor Michaelsen who one-timed the ball into the Fairfield net to put the Red Storm ahead 8-1 going into halftime.

Coming out of the break, Travis Nelson scored for Fairfield, ending the Stags' nearly 25 minutes of scoreless action.

Manes and O'Donnell netted their second goals of the day, respectively, to advance the score to 10-3 with 7:56 remaining in the third period.

Fairfield cut the lead down to three goals in the fourth period but they could not overcome the Red Storm's first-half scoring effort.

Sophomore goaltender Gavin Buckley had a tremendous day between the pipes as he stopped five of Fairfield's shots in the first half. He finished with seven saves for the day.

The win was bittersweet as the class of 2008 celebrated its final victory on its home turf of DaSilva Memorial Field. The 10 senior-student athletes are the first class to play four seasons with the Red Storm since the program's reinstatement in 2005 and have played a key role in the team's development over the past four years.

The Red Storm finished up its home schedule with a 2-4 overall record at home, and a 2-2 record on its home turf.

With four assists on Saturday, Tom Michaelsen has tallied 111 career points on 68 goals and 43 assists, making him the fifth Red Storm athlete to have more than 40 assists.

Up next, the Red Storm travels to Durham, N.C. to face the 2007 NCAA finalists, the Duke Blue Devils. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 4.