Air Force Thunders Past Marist, 23-8

Air Force Thunders Past Marist, 23-8

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – Falcon lacrosse put on a clinic for Marist, outscoring the Red Foxes, 23-8, Friday afternoon at Falcon Stadium. The Falcons extended to a two-game win streak and are 2-4 overall this season while Marist dropped to 2-3 with the loss.

SIGNIFICANT STATS
-The Falcons put up a season best 50 shots for the second-straight game and had a season-best .460 shot percentage (23-50).
-AF picked up 36 ground balls for the second-straight game led by Cole Cunningham who picked up a career-best eight ground balls.
-The 32 shots on goal is a new season best, overtaking last game's high of 31 shots on goal.
-Junior attacker Caelan Driggs scored a career best eight points on five goals and three assists, bringing his weekend total to nine goals and six assists. Driggs leads the Falcons with 20 goals this season and has had four hat tricks, two of which were five-goal games.
-Senior team captain Josh Yago notched his second-straight seven-point game via five goals and two helps, bringing his weekend total to eight goals and six assists. Yago leads the Falcons with 28 points this season and has 99 career points in three seasons of action.
-Driggs and Yago have scored a goal in every appearance this season.
-Senior midfielder Wes Peene scored three goals for his second hat trick this season, upping his season goals totals to 12.
-Senior faceoff specialist Jake Knapp won the center dot, claiming 12-of-23 attempts (.522). The 12 faceoff wins is a season high for any AF faceoff specialist. Knapp now has 104 career ground balls.
-Freshmen Wells Flinn broke the seal on collegiate scoring while teammate C4C Alex Rismani tallied a pair of goals to bring his season goals count to five for the most for any Falcon freshman.

GAME NOTES
-Air Force's back-to-back 20+ goal games is the first time since 1995.
-The 16 AF goals in the first half marked the most first-half goals in program history.
-The Falcons' nine goals in the first quarter was the first time scoring as many goals in a quarter since putting up 10 in the first quarter against Mercer in 2019.
-The last time Air Force scored 23+ goals was in 1997.
-The Falcons have two more non-conference games remaining and a chance to break even on the non-conference slate.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Quarter
Air Force's most prolific quarter since 2019 yielded nine goals from four Falcons. Similar to last game's thrashing, Marist was first to light the scoreboard just under two minutes into the game. Junior midfielder Cole Rassas responded 92 seconds via feed from Driggs. Driggs followed up with his first goal less than a minute later. Yago, wanting to get in the mix, rattled off three-straight goals from 9:27 to 7:48—his first and second goal were separated by just 23 seconds. Marist slowed the attack with a goal from Sam Ferrel at 6:29. Yago added his fourth goal at 2:30 followed by Peene's first at 1:58. Marist closed the cut the lead to 7-3 with a goal from Sean Mullan at 1:22. Yago and Driggs connected again with seven seconds remaining. In the final faceoff of the quarter, Cole Cunningham scooped up a ground ball and sent a 40-yard feed to Driggs who finished for a goal with less than a second on the ticker.

Second Quarter
Yago and company came out swinging in the second quarter with the team captain scoring his fifth goal 97 seconds out of the break, followed up by three-straight goals from Peene, Ryan Stadelmaier, and Cole Rassas. Marist scored their only goal of the quarter at the 3:23 mark. Alex Rismani responded with a goal 29 seconds after and Driggs scored goals four and five at 2:44 and 1:40 to close the first half with a program record 16 goals and a 12-goal lead.

Third Quarter
Marist was first to strike in the second half with a goal from Steven Cain at 11:09. Luke Vrsansky added a goal two minutes later in an unassisted attack. The Red Foxes' Collin Patrick rebutted with a goal at the 7:44 mark. The rest of the quarter was all Air Force as Jake Mason, Peene and Kyle Griffith scored in succession from 2:02 to 0:04. Air Force entered the fourth quarter with a 20-6 lead.

Fourth Quarter
The Falcons outscored the Red Foxes, 3-2, in the final 15 minutes. Marist's Mullan scored 52 seconds into the quarter. Alex Rismani and Jake Mason responded with goals at 13:12 and 11:19, respectively. Marist's last strike was from William Embury at 6:50. The last goal of the game came from freshman Wells Flinn in his first collegiate goal via feed from Nick Walter.

COMING UP
The Falcons hit the road to take on the perennial powerhouse No. 7 Duke on Saturday, March 8. Action at Koskinen Stadium is slated for noon ET. The Falcons will play the Blue Devils and Marquette on the road before the ASUN Conference slate, March 29.

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Team Stats

Caelan Driggs

Josh Yago

Wes Peene

Jake Mason

Players Mentioned

Cole Cunningham

Caelan Driggs

Wells Flinn

Kyle Griffith

Jake Knapp

Jake Mason

Wes Peene

Cole Rassas

Alex Rismani

Ryan Stadelmaier

Luke Vrsansky

Nick Walter

Josh Yago

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