Upper Montclair, NJ (04/24/03) - Freshman attack JOHN DELLA PESCA (Fair Lawn, NJ/Fair Lawn) scored six goals as Montclair State held off a furious rally by Centenary in the fourth quarter for a 12-11 victory in NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse action at Sprague Field on Thursday evening. The game was delayed nearly an hour as Centenary arrived late due to a major traffic tieup along Route 80 in New Jersey.

Junior SEAN PEKARSKY (Clifton, NJ/Clifton) added five goals for Montclair State (10-4), which closed out its regular season at 10-4, the first time the Red Hawks have won 10 games in a season since 1994. MSU will now wait to see if it secures one of the four bids to the ECAC Division III Metro Tournament, which will be held on May 9-11. The bids for the tournament will be announced on Monday, May 5th.

Reese Baillie (Surrey, British Columbia/Earl Marriotte) had three goals and an assist for the Cyclones (6-7), which outscored MSU, 5-0 in the final period.

Montclair State held a seemingly comfortable 12-6 heading into the final period, however Centenary began to chip away at the deficit. Matt Savarino (Flemington, NJ/Hunterdon Central) scored on a man-advantage with 9:07 to play and Chris Robbins (West Chester, PA/West Chester East) made the score 12-8 as he tallied a goal with 7:53 left. Baillie's third goal of the contest pulled the Cyclones within three and Craig Eliss (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater Raritan) scored twice within 54 seconds to make it a 12-11 game with 2:04 to play.

MSU then turned the ball over with 45 seconds left giving the Cyclones one last chance. But Red Hawk senior goaltender VINNY DEGENNARO (Fair Lawn, NJ/Fair Lawn) stopped Eliss' point-blank shot with six seconds left to preserve the victory for Montclair.

DeGennaro, playing in his final regular-season home game made 12 saves, extending his MSU career record to 637. Ryan Seickel (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater-Raritan) had 12 saves for Centenary, which was outshot in the game 44-28.

KEVIN GONDRES (Fair Lawn, NJ/Fair Lawn) had four assists for Montclair State, which took a 5-1 lead after one period thanks to three first-period goals from Della Pesca. ANTHONY MOSCA (Clifton, NJ/Clifton), one of nine MSU seniors playing in their final regular-season home game, had the other goal for the Red Hawks.

Savarino had two goals for Centenary, as did Nicholas Pielmeier (Mechanicsvill, MD/Chopticon).