Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/7/15
From Press Release
The #16/18 Lehigh men’s lacrosse team dropped a tough 10-9 season opener to visiting Marquette today. Senior Dan Taylor led the Lehigh offense with five points (three goals, two assists), four of the points coming in the game’s final 17:32, as the Mountain Hawks’ offense came alive down the stretch.
After scoring four goals in the game’s first 42:28, Lehigh scored five the rest of the way as the Mountain Hawks pulled within one on several occasions, but couldn’t get any closer.
“I thought it was a good game for February lacrosse. Two teams who probably haven’t been out on the practice field much, given our (geographical) locations,” said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. “I thought it was a pretty clean game overall. I thought both teams battled really hard. It was kind of what I expected, given how they finished last year and who they had coming back, which was just about everybody. I thought it was a pretty well-played game, but they just made a few more plays to win.”
The teams combined for just 21 turnovers – 11 for Marquette and 10 for Lehigh. Taylor’s effort was good for his 15th-career hat trick. Junior Reid Weber and senior Kurtis Kaunas each tallied two goals while sophomore Matt Raposo dished two assists in his first-career start. Sophomore Ian Strain had a goal and assist in his first-career game.
Senior short-stick defensive midfielders Sam Lawrence and Jack Bogorowski (La Salle) enjoyed strong games, combining for five caused turnovers. Senior Lukas Mikelinich had four groundballs and a caused turnover while junior Casey Eidenshink (La Salle) scooped a pair of groundballs.
Reid Weber (Germantown Academy) and Kurtis Kaunas (Parkland) each scored twice for Lehigh and Ian Strain (Episcopal Academy) had a goal and an assist.
Jordan Greenfield led Marquette with five points behind three goals and two assists. Defender Dan Mojica (Springfield-Delco) had three groundballs and a caused turnover.
After over 13 minutes without any scoring, Weber scored Lehigh’s first goal of 2015 off a nifty feed from Taylor with 1:40 left in the first quarter.
Taylor made it 2-0 Mountain Hawks just 35 seconds into the second quarter off a highlight-reel behind-the-back shot. The Golden Eagles answered with their first goal just over one minute later, to help spark a 3-0 run. Greenfield’s second goal with 9:34 on the clock gave Marquette its first lead of the game.
Late in the half, Strain pulled Lehigh even off an assist from junior Ray Mastroianni, but Marquette scored just over a minute later to make it 4-3 Golden Eagles at the half.
Marquette continued its run into the second half, scoring three of the first four third-quarter goals to take a 7-4 lead. Weber scored his second of the game on the extra man with 2:32 remaining to pull Lehigh within two after three quarters of play.
Trailing 8-5, two straight Mountain Hawks’ goals, from senior Alan Henderson and Taylor, pulled Lehigh within 8-7 with 8:28 on the clock. Marquette continued to have an answer, however, as Lehigh pulled within 9-8 and 10-9, but could never pull even as the Golden Eagles hung on for the 10-9 victory.
Final shots were 35-28 in favor of Lehigh while the Mountain Hawks had a 30-27 edge in groundballs. Sophomore Casey McAdam won 11-of-23 faceoffs for Lehigh while senior Matt Poillon made eight saves in goal.
“We need to continue to improve,” said Cassese. “We’ve only had 13 practices so far and I thought we played pretty well for only having 13. It’s early. Obviously, we’d like to win these games, but it’s all about gaining experience. We’re playing a lot of young people out there, a lot of guys who haven’t played a lot of meaningful minutes for us, especially on the defensive end. For us, it’s about getting in the film room on Monday and figuring out how to get better. We’ll get focused on doing that and trying to figure out how to beat Furman next week.”
The Mountain Hawks return to action next Saturday when they travel to Furman. Gametime is set for 11 a.m.
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