Sassone-Lawless' 5 Points Lead McGill to 14-5 Win over Ottawa

Co-captain Emile Sassone-Lawless of Ithaca, N.Y., scored a hat trick and added two assists as the McGill Redmen topped Ottawa 14-5 in a Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association game at Percival Molson Stadium on Thursday.

The victory improved McGill's record to 8-1 on the season, preserving their spot atop the CUFLA East standings.

The Redmen led 3-1 after the first quarter, 6-4 at halftime and carried a 10-4 lead into the final frame.

Sassone-Lawless, a six-foot, 180-pound midfielder, was named player of the game for McGill. The fifth-year psychology and environmental sciences senior opened the scoring then added two more goals in the second-half.

"Emile really took control," praised McGill head coach Tim Murdoch. "He had what was, for him, a rare hat trick he's an assist guy and two assists and just kept the team pumped up."

Senior Cyrus Wickersham, a 5-foot-8, 160-pound role player from Woods Hole, Mass., scored the game-winner with only 82 seconds remaining before halftime to restore McGill's two-goal advantage.

"We started off kind of sluggishly," admitted Murdoch. "We didn't have a great first half offensively. We started subbing in a lot of different guys looking for someone to spark us and right before halftime, with the score at 5-4, Wickersham came in cold off the bench and scored a beautiful goal that kind of sparked us. It was very inspirational because this guy doesn't play that much but he's a hard worker... He was actually fetching water for the guys, we sent him into the game cold and he scores a big goal seconds later"

Goose Bolton of Darien, Conn., scored a pair of goals for the Redmen. Other scorers for McGill were Liam MacDonald of North Vancouver, B.C., rookie Hunter Zawada of Kimberley, B.C., Kieran McKay of Richmond, B.C., Cal Callahan of Glenview, Ill., Ian Macleod of Bradenton, Fla., freshman Felix Cote of Sudbury, Ont., and Naoll Degife of New Westminster, B.C.

The Gee-Gees were led by Spencer Corkery, who had two goals. Liam Brechin, Scott Taylor and Fred Hartley also scored for the visitors.

William Waesche of Greenwich, Conn., started in goal for the Redmen and made 10 saves on 15 shots. He was replaced late in the game by sophomore Michael Gallo of Glen Rock, N.J., who turned away both shots faced.

"William had done really well in the game but we wanted to get one of our other goalies some (playing time)," explained Murdoch of the substitution. "Gallo did quite well. He didn't let in any goals in the last 10 minutes or so."

Midfielder Julian Smith-Voudouris of Stouffville, Ont., was 11-for-16 on face-offs and freshman Gardie Herr of Princeton, N.J., went 4-for-6.

Ottawa (3-6) hosts Bishop's (5-1) on Oct. 15.

McGill (8-1) has a nine-day break from league play but will face The Hill Academy a prestigious sports school based in Vaughan, Ont., in exhibition play on Saturday (Oct. 7, 10 a.m.) at Percival Molson Stadium. The Redmen resume CUFLA competition at Queen's (2-6) on Oct. 14.

LINK TO BOXSCORE

2017 CANADIAN UNVERSITY FIELD LACROSSE ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
(updated after games on Oct. 5, 2017)