OSKALOOSA, Iowa – (RV) Benedictine Men's Lacrosse knocked off (5) William Penn University 8-7 on Saturday afternoon to win the program's first-ever Heart of America Athletic Conference regular-season championship and earn the top seed in next week's Heart Men's Lacrosse Championship.

Trailing 7-2 headed to the fourth quarter, the Ravens held the Statesmen scoreless in the fourth quarter with Joey Calabria scoring twice over the last 11 minutes of the game to give the Ravens their eighth straight to finish at 5-0 in the Heart.

The Ravens opened the game with goals from Mason Eberle and Jordan Rodriguez with Rodriguez assisting on Eberle's goal. The Statesmen answered with four straight goals to take a 4-2 lead into the second quarter. Calabria made it 4-3 off an assist from Charlie Louree before the Statesmen capped off the first-half scoring to take a 5-3 lead into the break.

The Statesmen scored two goals after Zachary Torres scored for the Ravens to open the third quarter. Between those two goals, Joseph Bianchi added two goals of his own to make it 6-6 before the second goal from William Penn to take the lead into the fourth quarter.

Benedictine held a 41-39 advantage in shots with 25 shots on goal. Calabria led the Ravens with 3 goals, followed by Bianchi with 2. Rodriguez, Eberle and Torres finished with one goal each. Louree led the Ravens with 2 assists Liam Waldron joined Rodriguez with one assist each.

CJ Besuzzi played all 60 minutes in goal for the Ravens. He finished with a career-high 16 saves – 7 of which came in the fourth quarter – to help hold the Statesmen scoreless over the final 15 minutes of play.

William Penn finished with 19 turnovers, seven of which Benedictine registered a caused turnover on. Jack Northrup and Aiden Nicholson finished with 2 caused turnovers each. Max Thomason won 8 of 15 face-offs with 2 ground balls. Rodriguez and Bianchi led the Ravens with 3 ground balls each. 

Benedictine will host the Heart Championship Semifinals at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The Heart Men's Lacrosse Championship Game will take place one week from today on the site of the higher-seeded team in the championship game pairing.

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