RINDGE, N.H. (March 30, 2019) – Trailing 10-3 to Northeast-10 Conference foe Bentley University midway through the third quarter, the Franklin Pierce University men's lacrosse team rallied to pull within three goals, but could not overcome the early deficit suffering a 10-7 defeat Saturday afternoon on Sodexo Field. With the loss, the Crimson and Grey slip to 4-2, 2-2 NE10 while the win propels the Falcons to 4-2, 2-2 NE10.

Raven team captain Jake Castorf (Holbrook, N.Y.) led all FPU players with three goals. Teammate Josh Dorr (Brunswick, Maine) chipped in one marker and a game-high two assists. Graduate student Domenic St. Laurent (Amherst, N.H.) racked up two goals as well.

On the defensive side, Pierce sophomore defender Kyle Fortier (Derry, N.H.) set a new personal-best with a game-high four caused turnovers. Faceoff specialist Lawrence Bastianelli (Rocky Point, N.Y.) continued his strong work in the X going 17-of-21 (81%) on faceoffs while gobbling up a contest-high nine groundballs.

Falcons senior attack Alex Astarita manufactured a game-high four goals off nine total shots. Michael Fricke and Joey Tesoriero tallied two goals apiece.

Raven starting netminder Justin Lorenzo (Goshen, N.Y.) recorded double-digit saves for the third consecutive game stopping 10 shots in the setback while falling to 4-2 on the year. For Bentley, Michael Haggan made 15 saves and improved to 4-2.

Bentley cleared 22-of-23 attempts compared to the Ravens 16-of-19. However, FPU's 28-to-15 margin in groundballs was mostly due to the fact that their counterparts to go 4-for-21 (19%) in the X. The Ravens defense put the clamps on the Falcons offense in the second half holding them to only 12 shots. The Ravens took a whopping 29 shot attempts in the second half.

Franklin Pierce began the scoring at the 10:23 mark when St. Laurent dodged defenders and drove through traffic in the middle to cash in a close right wing attempt to give the Ravens their only goal of the first half. Bentley punched home six straight tallies spanning a full quarter including the only man-advantage goal of the duel to climb out to a 6-1 advantage at the end of the first half.

FPU struck quickly in the third to pull within three, 6-3 just 1:11 into the fresh quarter. 35 seconds into the third, Dorr bounced in a shot from a couple of feet out making the score 6-2. A couple of ticks later, Castorf pushed in a close left slot attempt to cap off the Raven strong start. Bentley went on another scoring spurt of their own notching four consecutive goals to build their lead to 10-3

Pierce battled back with a Dorr to St. Laurent connection with 2:24 left to play in the third to make it a 10-4 game. In the fourth, Dorr dished a pass to sophomore Mike Alibrandi (Holliston, Mass.) dropping the margin to 10-5. Castorf racked up the next two goals when he ran around the cage and buried a runner putting FPU down four, 10-6 with 11:40 left. Following a Raven timeout, Colin Doherty (Reading, Mass.) found his teammate for the left side low shot. This would be the closest the Ravens would come as the Falcons held on for the victory.

The Ravens head back out on the road Tuesday when they travel to no. 7 nationally-ranked Le Moyne College for a 4:00 p.m. bout.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://fpuravens.com). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men's lacrosse apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://fpuravens.com/store). You can also follow the men's lacrosse team on Twitter (https://twitter.com/FPUMLacrosse) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fpumlacrosse).