PITTSBURGH, Pa. – With an explosive fourth quarter, the Hilbert College men's lacrosse team pulled away and captured a 15-12 non-conference win over La Roche  College April 26.  As they have done in previous games, the Hawks shared the ball well and attacked the frame from different angles.  Hilbert improved to 8-4 after their final regular season game as they dropped La Roche to 2-10.

Tyler Nicoloff, Elliott Russillio and Matthew Simon netted three goals each while Simon tallied game-high honors with three assists.   As Hilbert out-shot the RedHawks 60-31, these three combined for 50% of the Hawks' shots.  

Brenden Deady was credited with a season-high 24 saves, helping the Hawks survive La Roche's 36 shots-on-goal stat.

Hilbert opened the game with a quick 2-0 lead before the 10 minute mark with goals by Simon and Nicoloff.  La Roche responded with a score at 9:54 and added their second at 4:31.  Yet, Hilbert outscored the hosts in the quarter when Drew Ulbrich, Russillio and Nick Kieffer added three more tallies for the 5-2 Hawks lead.

Both teams went to the break right where they left off at the end of the 1st quarter even though they each scored four goals in the 15-minute second quarter.  Russillio, Simon, Doug Takac and Ian Holtby notched points helping the Hawks maintain their three goal lead (9-6) at intermission.

After a Hilbert scoreless third quarter, La Roche evened the field by the start of the final session.  The RedHawks added the first of three goals at 10:31 then posted a second score just 12 ticks later after winning the face-off.   The hosts knotted the game for the first time with just-under four minutes left in third period.

Ulbrich and Simon jump-started the Hawks' offense in the final quarter popping back-to-back scores 11-seconds apart.  La Roche was unfazed and responded with their version of back-to-back hits by 10:22 and evened the game for the second time.  But Hilbert turned-up their efforts and over the next four minutes added three more goals (Andrew MacKay, Russillio, Nicoloff) for their final point spread.  Each team beat the opposing team's goalie for one final marker before the horn sounded which gave the visitors a 15-12 final.

La Roche won the ground battle picking up eight more ground balls (40-32) and won nine more face-offs than Hilbert.  Nick Kieffer led the Hawks with five ground balls after winning nine face-offs for Hilbert.  MacKay, Holtby, Ulbrich, Deady and Simon all reached for three ground balls on the day and Aaron Valino led with two caused-turnovers on defense.

Hilbert can now focus on their third consecutive trip to the North Eastern Athletic Conference play-offs which begin Wednesday, April 30.  The Hawks, as the third seed, will travel to #2 Morrisville (12-3, 6-1 NEAC), while #1 and undefeated Keuka College (12-0, 7-0 NEAC) will host #4 Medaille College (5-6, 4-3).  The NEAC championship game will be played at the highest-seed-remaining's campus Saturday, May 3rd.