Knights Pummel Sharks, Win 14-1 at Home

CCBC Essex Knights men's lacrosse on Sunday defeated Suffolk County 14-1 using 10 different goal scorers.

Freshman midfielder Cole Rainier (The Calverton School) led the charge with four goals and two assists, while sophomore midfielder Nick Mazza (The Calverton School) was not far behind, tallying three goals of his own and helping on two others.

The Knights (4-0) scored its first goal just 52 seconds into the game, as Mazza scored unassisted.

Eight seconds later two freshmen attackmen hooked up for Essex's second goal, as Will Manganiello (Penncrest, Pa.) hit Brendan Nolan (Fallston) with a pass that was quickly deposited passed the Sharks goalie.

Scoring stalled for the Knights through the reminder of the first frame, but Mazza opened the flood gates 1:30 into the second with a man-up goal from sophomore attackman Cameron Stone (Foothills, Calif.)

"Great relationships off the field translate into great relationships on the field," Mazza said regarding team chemistry. "I think the tougher moments in this game were coming down [on offense] in the beginning, making sure we were giving clean passes and getting a goal in our first possession by coming out and firing."

It was the first of four second quarter goals that led to a 6-0 halftime advantage.

Rainier started the second half right where he left off in the first, scoring his second goal 3:25 into the third and hit his hat trick less than five minutes later.

Rainier scored his fourth and final goal early in the fourth quarter.  

While the Knights offense was busy scoring, its defense was preventing the Sharks from doing the same.

Sophomores Tommy Brown (Boys' Latin School), Tyler Utz (Bel Air), Troy Karpinski (Manheim Township, Pa.), and company locked down the defensive end, holding Suffolk to only 20 shots.

Freshman goalie Max Edelmann (Middletown) was a force in the cage for the Knights with 15 saves and only one goal allowed.

"I think a big part of the game was communication," Edelmann said. "Our defense played very well today and that was a huge part as well."   

Sophomore goalie Ross Dinan (Geneva, N.Y.) saved all five shots he faced in relief.

The Sharks (0-2) only goal was scored by sophomore midfielder Greg Dixon and came 9:35 into the third quarter.

"I thought we lost a little bit of focus in the third quarter when we were up eight or nine to one," said Knights head coach Shawn Burke. "I thought we had a couple of opportunities to stretch that lead out. I think really good teams have a killer instinct and that's what we're trying to get our guys to understand and get better with and I thought they did a pretty good job with it today."