LYNDHURST, N.J. – The Felician University men's lacrosse team allowed its fewest goals in a game in its four-year history during its 12-5 victory over visiting Caldwell University on Monday night at the Lyndhurst Recreation Complex. The game was a non-conference match-up between the fellow Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference members.

The Cougars and Golden Falcons were meeting for the first time.

Felician (1-3) yielded only one goal after halftime. Caldwell outshot the Golden Falcons, 40-39, on the night, but junior goalkeeper Pat Hemmer (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) backed the hosts' defensive unit with 18 saves and three ground balls.

Junior Cody Hildebrand (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Central) led Felician defensemen with five ground balls and redshirt freshman Ali Safa (Staten Island, N.Y./New Dorp) added four. Freshman long-stick midfielder Matthew Branco (Saddle Brook, N.J./Saddle Brook) had a pair of caused turnovers.

Golden Falcon sophomore Jose McLean-Byrd (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) was 13 for 20 on faceoffs and picked up 11 ground balls.

Felician jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two minutes, one second, had elapsed in the contest, and the first period ended with that score. Caldwell (1-1) rebounded to even the game with 7:17 remaining until halftime. The Golden Falcons moved ahead to stay on a low shot from long range by freshman Jabes Escalante (Chelsea, Mass./Chelsea) at the 5:53 mark and entered halftime ahead, 6-4.

With the Golden Falcons clinging to the two-goal lead and a man down due to a penalty, redshirt freshman Robert Grasso (Islip, N.Y./Islip) broke free in transition and found the cage 2:05 into the third period. Felician rode the momentum to score twice more in the next three minutes, and outscored the Cougars, 5-0 in the quarter to break the game open.

Junior midfielder James D'Albora (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) produced career highs of five goals and six points. Grasso totaled four goals and an assist and Escalante finished with two goals and two assists. Anthony Hanratty (Hewitt, N.J./West Milford) registered Felician's only man-up goal in six chances.

Sophomore attackman Michael Brown (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) scored twice for Caldwell. The sides meet again during CACC play on April 27 in West Caldwell, N.J.

Felician begins its 2021 league slate against Georgian Court University on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Lyndhurst.