Men's Lacrosse Wraps Up Homestand With NJIT On Saturday

Game 4	Massachusetts (2-1, 0-0 A-10) vs. NJIT (0-1, 0-0 AE)
Date \| Time	Saturday, February 22, 2025 \| 12:00 PM
Location	Amherst, Mass. \| Garber Field
Live Statistics	StatBroadcast
Watch	ESPN+
Series History	Massachusetts leads 2-0 Last: Massachusetts 19, NJIT 7 Alumni Field \| Newark, N.J. \| March 9, 2019
Twitter	@UMassAthletics \| @UMassMLacrosse
Instagram	UMass Men's Lacrosse

AGAINST NJIT

- Massachusetts is 2-0 all-time in its series against NJIT, winning its meetings against the Highlanders 17-3 in Amherst in 2018 and 19-7 in Newark, New Jersey in 2019. In that last victory, 14 Minutemen had at least one point and goalkeeper Sean Sconone made 10 saves.

LAST TIME OUT

- UMass never trailed en route to its second win of the season, defeating Dartmouth 11-17 on Garber Field on Tuesday afternoon. With the win, the Gorillas move to 2-1 on the year, while the Big Green fall to 1-1.
- In a balanced offensive effort, eight players combined for UMass' 11 goals, with freshman Robbie Granara leading the way with three points on two goals and an assist. Aiden Drunsic and Zach Auble had two goals apiece, Trace Hogan, Charles Kurtz and Matthew Cargiulo each contributed a goal and an assist and Blaise New added two assists. Auble and TJ Casey scooped up five ground balls apiece.
- With 1:17 remaining in the contest, freshman Will Morse capped the scoring with UMass' first man-down goal since 2018.
- Owen Salanger added 10 saves to improve to 2-0 on the season for the Gorillas.

CAREER FIRSTS

- Despite the tough loss against Army in the season opener, the Gorillas saw offensive contributions from some of their new faces.
- Freshman midfielder Tyler Clayton posted a hat trick in his collegiate debut, and fellow freshman Robbie Granara added another two goals in his first collegiate game.
- Senior transfer Trace Hogan led the way and contributed four points to the stat sheet in his debut with Massachusetts.
- The Massachusetts freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger played 45 minutes In his first collegiate game and totaled 13 saves.
- In the Feb. 14 win against Quinnipiac, sophomore Michael Finnerty picked up his first collegiate point with an assist while freshmen Will Morse and Jack Turowsky collected their first career goals in their UMass debuts.

WELCOME TO THE TROOP

- The Gorillas have added 11 first-year players to their roster for 2024: Attackmen (3) Luca Duva (Katonah, N.Y.), Robbie Granara (Reading, Mass.), Jack Whitham (Dallas, Texas), Midfielders (4) Tyler Clayton (Acton, Mass.), Xander Johnson (Dublin, Ohio), Ryan Mourad (Norwood, Mass.), Jack Turowsky (East Longmeadow, Mass.), Defensemen (3) Tyler Burton (Chanhassen, Minn.), Will Morse (Norwell, Mass.), Ryan Wieczorek (Massapequa, N.Y.) and Goalkeeper (1) Owen Salanger (Liverpool, N.Y.) whose father, Jeff Salanger '89, was a UMass teammate of Greg Cannella's in 1986 and 1987.

2025 LEADERSHIP GROUP

- Graduate student goalkeeper Tyler Bluse, senior midfielder Brady Hoff and graduate student defender Jack Wittmaack were voted as team captains for the 2025 season.
- Bluse saw action in nine games over the past three seasons, playing a total of 21:12, backing up All-American Matt Knote. He holds a career .478 save percentage and a 17.07 goals against average.
- Hoff appeared in 30 games over three previous seasons, including a career-best 14 in 2023. He has scored two career goals and contributed 21 ground balls and seven caused turnovers.
- Wittmaack has played in 33 games over three seasons after not seeing action as a freshman in 2021. The defenseman has totaled three points on two goals and three assists, 47 ground balls and 35 caused turnovers. He posted career bests in ground balls (30) and caused turnovers (22) in 2024 as a senior. Wittmaack will miss the 2025 season with an injury.

ADDING EXPERIENCE VIA THE TRANSFER PORTAL

- The Gorillas have added four transfers to the roster for 2025, including faceoff specialist graduate student Brendan Coyle from Bucknell, redshirt sophomore attackman Gavin Begonia from Ohio State and senior defenseman Joe Conley and senior midfielder Trace Hogan from Merrimack.
- Coyle saw regular action for Bucknell over X over the past three seasons for a total of 25 games, serving as the team's primary faceoff specialist in 2023 and 2024. He won 115 of 250 (.460) draws last season.
- Begonia redshirted the 2024 season with the Buckeyes last year after seeing action in three games as a rookie in 2023.
- Conley and Hogan join the Gorillas after both having starting roles with the Warriors. Hogan started all 41 games he appeared in at Merrimack and logged 79 points on 33 goals and 46 assists, including finishing third on the team in scoring in 2024 with a career-best 35 points (16g, 19a). Conley played in 41 games in three seasons in North Andover, starting 30. He has 38 career ground balls and 43 caused turnovers to his credit.

ENCORE PERFORMANCE

- Current sophomore midfielders Matthew Cargiulo and Blaise New were both named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team as freshmen in 2024.
- As a rookie, Cargiulo appeared in all 14 games in 2024 and contributed 10 points on eight goals and two assists with three multi-goal efforts, two in Atlantic 10 play, while collecting seven ground balls. New also saw action in all 14 contests to start his career and logged 22 ground balls and nine caused turnovers.

NEW FACE ON STAFF

- During the offseason, head coach Greg Cannella added Cole Pecora to his staff as the director of player development for the Gorillas.
- Pecora comes to UMass from Bryant where he helped the Bulldogs to the 2023 America East title. As an assistant coach at Bryant, Pecora coached and developed the No. 4 ranked faceoff unit (59.8%) and No. 1 faceoff specialist (62.8%) in Division I in 2024, All-American Nathan Laliberte. The Bulldogs faceoff unit ranked 14^th nationally (56.6%) on his watch in 2023.
- Prior to joining Bryant's staff, Pecora was a graduate assistant coach at Wesleyan where he earned his master's in liberal studies. Pecora coached the offense, goalies, wing play and faceoffs with the Cardinals and served as co-recruiting coordinator. His recruits helped Wesleyan reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and win the 2024 NESCAC title. While with the Cardinals, Pecora mentored nine USILA Division II All-Americans over two seasons.
- As a student-athlete at Springfield, Pecora earned four varsity letters and was part of four NCAA Tournament teams. The two-way midfielder was a two-year starter and served as captain as a senior while earning all-conference recognition.

YEAR 31 FOR THE MAN IN CHARGE

- University of Massachusetts head coach Greg Cannella enters his 31^st season at the helm for the Gorillas and his 37^th year in coaching overall. He currently holds a record of 249-176 (.586) and ranks sixth among active Division I head coaches in wins. The UMass alumnus is the third-longest tenured among active Division I men's head coaches and the most tenured coach at one institution in Division I lacrosse (both genders).

NEXT UP

- UMass will head to UAlbany in Albany, New York to face the Great Danes for the squads first road game of the season on March 1 at noon.

Scoreboard

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Players Mentioned

Zach Auble

Gavin Begonia

Tyler Bluse

Tyler Burton

Matthew Cargiulo

TJ Casey

Tyler Clayton

Joe Conley

Brendan Coyle

Aiden Drunsic

Luca Duva

Michael Finnerty

Robbie Granara

Brady Hoff

Trace Hogan

Xander Johnson

Matt Knote

Charles Kurtz

Will Morse

Ryan Mourad

Blaise New

Owen Salanger

Sean Sconone

Jack Turowsky

Jack Whitham

Ryan Wieczorek

Jack Wittmaack

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics