The Loyola University Maryland men’s lacrosse team locked up the top seed in the 2014 Patriot League Men’s Lacrosse Tournament with a 15-6 win over last-place Boston University Saturday afternoon at Ridley Athletic Complex.

The No. 1 Greyhounds (11-1 overall, 7-0 Patriot League), winners of 11 straight (the longest current win streak in the nation), were led by freshman Graham Savio, who won 17 of 25 faceoffs and picked up six ground balls in the victory.
Senior Kevin Ryan tallied three goals and an assist, while junior Nikko Pontrello added three goals and two assists, finishing with a game-high five points. Pontrello now has 40 goals on the season, good for second-most in the country behind Albany’s Miles Thompson.
Senior Justin Ward assisted on three goals, breaking Sean Heffernan’s single-season Division I school record of 38 assists, set back in 1994. Ward currently has 39 assists on the season, which ranks second in the nation.
The Terriers (1-11, 1-6 PL) fought hard in the first half, giving the Hounds everything they had. Alex Paroda scored his first goal of the season in the game’s opening minute to give Boston University a 1-0 lead.
“They’re probably, in my opinion, one of the best first-year programs that I’ve seen in a long time,” Loyola head coach Charley Toomey said of the Terriers, who are carrying 30 freshmen in their first season as a Division I lacrosse program.
The Greyhounds wouldn’t trail for long, though, as senior Matt Sawyer evened the score on a pass from freshman Romar Dennis with 11:11 left in the first quarter. Goals by seniors Pat Laconi and Ryan gave the Hounds a 3-1 lead after the first quarter of play.
Boston University held the Loyola offense to just one goal in the second quarter. Ryan found junior Jeff Chase, who fired a shot into the net with 4:27 before halftime, putting the Greyhounds ahead, 4-1. The lead wouldn’t change for the remainder of the first half, as both offenses were unable to make a run.
Both squads made an offensive push in the second half. The Terriers scored their first goal since the opening minute on a Craig Zebrowski goal just 1:04 into the third quarter, cutting Loyola’s lead to two.
However, the Hounds would then score four unanswered, starting with a goal by Ryan, assisted by Pontrello. Redshirt freshman Brian Sherlock then scored an unassisted goal a minute later, before Dennis launched a shot from 12 yards out to give the Hounds a 7-2 advantage.
Pontrello tallied another assist on a goal on the left side from senior Brian Schultz with 8:08 remaining in the third quarter.
Down 8-2, the Terriers hung around, scoring two in a row to cut Loyola’s lead to four. However, with 1:34 remaining in the quarter, Ward scooped up a ground ball and fed sophomore Tyler Albrecht, who found the back of the net to give the Hounds a commanding 9-4 lead entering the final quarter.
Following another Loyola goal by freshman Ryan Fournier with 13:26 remaining in the game, the Terriers once again made it a four-goal game. Two consecutive scores by Sam Tenney and Cal Dearth cut the Loyola lead to 10-6 with 7:12 remaining.
However, the Greyhounds would cruise from there, scoring the game’s final five goals. Ward tied Loyola’s single-season assist record after finding Schultz with seven minutes left, and broke the record when he found Pontrello with just over five minutes remaining.
Senior Joe Fletcher picked up three ground balls and caused three turnovers, while Laconi picked up five ground balls and caused two turnovers, in addition to his goal and assist.
Senior goalkeeper Jack Runkel converted 10 saves, while junior Pat McEnerney finished the job with one save in the final 4:16, without surrendering a goal.
As the Patriot League regular season champs, the Greyhounds will host the 2014 Patriot League Tournament. The semifinals will take place at Ridley on Friday, April 25, and the final will be played on Sunday, April 27.
“We’ve talked about some of our goals this year as a program,” Coach Toomey said. “Certainly, having the Patriot League Tournament come through Ridley was one of them, and that’s what our young men accomplished today. I’m very proud of them and their efforts for that.”
Before the conference tournament begins, the Greyhounds will host fifth-place Bucknell this Thursday at 7 p.m.