MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The nation's second-highest scoring offense got right to work and never looked back as the No. 13 ranked Wesleyan men's lacrosse team handed No. 20 Stevens a dominating 22-5 victory on a frigid Sunday afternoon at Citrin Field. Wesleyan (3-0) has scoring totals of 22, 25 and now 22 again through their first three games of the season while they handed the Ducks (2-5), who were leading No. 1 RIT on Thursday night and are consistently nationally ranked every season, their worst defeat in 20+ years.
 
In a game that saw Wesleyan hold Stevens to very little on the offensive end, the +17 margin-of-victory signals the biggest win over a ranked opponent in program history for the Cardinals. This one-sided result passes the previous record set on March 21, 2018 where Wesleyan defeated then-No. 10 Roanoke on the road, 18-5. Wesleyan's 22 goals are the most the team has ever scored against a ranked opponent while the five goals allowed is the fewest Wesleyan has allowed against a ranked foe since a 6-3 win over then-No. 3 Amherst on March 28, 2012. Even with the lopsided score line, the Cardinals didn't take off until midway through the first quarter as Jake Sexton '22 and Matt Gill '23 scored 32 seconds apart but Stevens' Ryan Caplis answered back with a goal 34 seconds later and the score remained 2-1 Wesleyan until midway through the opening frame.
 
After the Caplis goal, it was all-Wesleyan throughout the remainder of the first half as the Cardinals rattled off six unanswered goals (scored by five different Cardinals) before the final horn sounded on the period. Five of those six goals were assisted while the sixth was a clean faceoff win from Tyler Campbell '25 who scooped up the ground ball and ripped a shot high that made it 7-1 Cardinals.
 
With Wesleyan leading 8-1 after one, it was a defense-dominated second quarter as the two sides combined for just four goals while nearly 12 full minutes of game clock went by with neither side scoring. Joseph Grippo broke the deadlock with a EMO goal with 3:58 left in the frame before Gill and DJ Dixon '24 answered back with goals less than a minute apart to help Wesleyan head into halftime leading 10-3. Even with a seven-goal lead heading into the third quarter, the Cardinals didn't let their foot off the gas pedal and played a nearly flawless quarter, outscoring the Ducks 7-0 to take a 17-3 lead into the fourth.
 
Wesleyan combined a great quarter of faceoffs (6-1 in favor of the Cardinals) while Colin Hanley '22 made the saves when he needed two (four in the quarter) and the Cardinal shooters didn't miss as again, balanced scoring saw six different Cardinals score in the frame as the game was well in-hand entering the fourth.
 
Gill was a major factor in the third as he assisted on three straight Wesleyan goals in a span of less than four minutes, adding one from early in the frame to give him four of his career-high six assists in the third quarter alone. Justin Hazard '23 added one goal and two assists while Spencer Robbins '22 pumped in an EMO goal and added another late that made it 17-3 Cardinals. The Cardinals continued to push in the fourth quarter, seeing Gill spin and toss a no-look backhanded pass to Kyle Camphausen '22 who finished the highlight-reel play with a goal. Jake Sexton '22, Hayden Leachman '23, Pat Doherty '23 and Devin O'Sullivan '25 (who scored his first career goal) finished off the scoring for the Cardinals.
 
Gill continues to lead the way for the Wesleyan attack as he pumped in a career-high 10 points (four goals, six assists), tied with Harry Stanton '18 (10 points against Tufts on April 22, 2017) for the highest single-game point total for any Cardinal in well over two decades. Gill now has 24 points (nine goals, 15 assists) through three games this season, leading the NESCAC and ranking Top 5 in the nation.
 
Sexton led the team with 13 shots while he tallied five points (four goals, one assist), good enough for his first hat trick of the season. Hazard added five points including a career-high four assists while Robbins (two goals, three assists) posted a career-high five points. Leachman also recorded a career-high in points with four (two goals, two assists) while four other Cardinals posted two points. Kevin Talbot '24 dominated at the X, going 9-for-11, while Campbell also posted nine faceoff wins. Each of them tallied five ground balls.
 
Jack Devlin '24 led the Wesleyan defense with four ground balls to go along with one caused turnover while Camphausen, Nolan Collins '23 and Jacob Braunstein '23 each posted three ground balls and two caused turnovers.
 
Hanley continues to improve in the cage as he landed his first career double-digit save performance, making 10 saves against just four goals allowed. Coming into this season without a start in his career, Hanley is up to three straight games with a .500+ save percentage while he hasn't allowed more than five goals in any start in 2022. The Cardinals head into a midweek home game next as Wesleyan will play host to Salve Regina for a 1 PM start on Wednesday from Citrin Field. This is just the third all-time meeting between the two sides and the first since 2011 (Wesleyan is 2-0 all-time against the Seahawks).