Union men's lacrosse rolls in regular-season finale, clinches home game for Liberty League semis

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Union's Peter Burnes scores on a shot next to Skidmore's Tommy McGarrahan and Bobby Meindl Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

SCHENECTADY — The best regular season in Union men’s lacrosse history finished off in dominant fashion on Saturday, as the Dutchmen got points from 21 different players in rolling to a 22-4 Liberty League victory over Vassar at Frank Bailey Field.

With the win, fourth-ranked Union wrapped up the regular season at 14-1 overall and 6-1 in Liberty League play. Union clinched the second seed for the Liberty League tournament and will host its semifinal game Wednesday against No. 3 seed St. Lawrence, which fell to RIT on Saturday in its regular-season finale.

Union posted a 13-10 win over St. Lawrence when the teams met March 25 in Canton.

Union’s 14 wins match the second-highest total for a season in program history, trailing only the 2014 team that went 15-4. Since suffering its lone loss of the season on April 9 at RIT, Union has won its last four games by a combined margin of 72-31.

In Saturday’s win, Hayden Frey had three goals and four assists, and Peter Burnes had three goals and three assists to lead the way for the Dutchmen, who scored the game’s first seven goals and led by as many as 12 in the first half. Vassar scored 57 seconds into the third quarter to pull within 13-4 before Union ended the game on a 9-0 run as four different players — Matt Blasi, Finn Garrity, Clayton Arcuri and Hazen Pike — scored their first goals of the season.

Union dominated possession, with Sam Byrne winning 14 of 19 faceoffs and Matthew Paolatto taking 7 of 10. Dan Donahue only had to make one save in the first half before Reed Karaska took over between the pipes in the second half and stopped eight of the nine shots he faced.

Vassar 0 3 1 0 — 4

Union 6 7 4 5 — 22

Vassar scoring: Metz 1-0, Olds 1-0, Hyde 1-0, O’Hara 1-0, Santise 0-1, Lederman 0-1. Union scoring: Burnes 3-3, Davis 0-1, Kip 2-0, Belluche 2-0, Frey 3-4, McCann 1-1, Titus 2-0, Shaw 1-0, Weidner 0-1, Mabardy 1-0, Quaintance 0-1, Arcuri 1-0, Georgiades 1-1, Greene 1-0, Smith 0-1, Byrne 0-1, J. Donahue 1-1, Garrity 1-1, McEvoy 0-2, Pike 1-0, Blasi 1-0. Goalies: Vassar, Bagin, 13 saves; Gallagher, 3 saves. Union, D. Donahue, 1 save; Karaska, 8 saves.