RICHMOND — Richmond men’s lacrosse stayed perfect in Southern Conference play by defeating visiting Furman 8-2 Saturday at Robins Stadium. The Spiders improve to 7-4 overall, a program record for wins in a season, and a perfect 3-0 in the SoCon. The three league wins also sets a new program mark after last year’s inaugural season.
Furman falls to 2-8 overall, 1-3 in league games.
The Spiders jumped out quickly with three goals in the first three minutes. Sophomore J.P. Forester (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan) scored his 20th goal of the season with a goal 78 seconds into the game on an assist from sophomore Dan Ginestro (Syracuse, New York) for the 1-0 lead.
Any victory is a good victory and when you throw in it’s a league game, it was good for sure,” said Richmond head coach Dan Chemotti. “We have put ourselves in a good position in the league so far, but anything can happen and it is still way too early to think about the standings.
Just 30 seconds later, A.J. Lapitino (Setauket, New York) scored an unassisted goal and less than a minute later, redshirt junior Alex Hatem (Syracuse, New York) made it 3-0 with an unassisted goal with 12:04 remaining in the first quarter.
The Spiders finished the first leading 5-0 and shut out the Paladins in two different quarters in the game, their seventh and eighth defensive shutout quarters of the season, including six in their three SoCon games.
The defense was stifling for the Spiders. Richmond defenseman Tom Monzo (Flourtown, Pennsylvania) had the game-high with four caused turnovers. Fellow defensemen Ryan Dennis (Peapack Gladstone, New Jersey) and Brendan Hynes (Mahopac, New York) caused three turnovers each. Hynes led all players with nine ground balls in the game.
Forester, Hatem and sophomore Mitch Goldberg (Damascus, Maryland) all had two goals for the Spiders. Goldberg has registered at least one point in his last 20 games, dating back to last season.
Forester finished with three points by adding an assist. He leads the Spiders with 33 points this season.
Richmond sophomore goalie Benny Pugh (Woodberry Forest School) gave up just one goal and made four saves in just over 57 minutes of game play. It was the third time in his career he played more than a half and gave up a goal or less. He is also 7-4 this season.
The Spiders will head to High Point next Saturday in a Southern Conference game to start at noon.
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