Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/3/12
From Press Releases
The host Drexel men’s lacrosse team suffered a heartbreaking 6-5 loss to to No. 8 Notre Dame at Vidas Field.
The Dragons (1-3) had the ball and a man-up opportunity with just over a minute to play in the fourth quarter, but could not get off a shot as an intense, rugged defensive game closed with Notre Dame swarming the Drexel offense as it closed in on the net.
Westy Hopkins (La Salle/Lawrenceville School) scored once for the Irish and defenseman Stephen O’Hara (St. Joseph’s Prep) led the staunch defense.
Aaron Prosser scored twice for Drexel, which took an early 2-0 lead.
The Dragons led 2-1 at the half before a four-goal third quarter by the Irish (2-1) gave Notre Dame control of the game. Drexel would knot the game at five momentarily in the fourth quarter, but could not take another lead.
Drexel lit up the scoreboard first less than two minutes into the game. Playing a man up thanks to a one-minute slashing penalty by Notre Dame’s Conor Doyle, Drexel methodically worked the ball around the cage to open the man-up opportunity before Brendan Glynn (St. Joseph’s Prep) found Ben McIntosh in front to rip in the game’s first score. It was the first of two assists for Glynn on the day, and the second goal of the season for McIntosh.
Deven Thomas had a good start to the day in the faceoff circle, going up against Notre Dame’s Liam O’Connor (Haverford School), one of the better faceoff men in the country. Thomas wound up winning nine of 15 faceoffs on the afternoon, including the first two of the day. The second, following McIntosh’s goal, would eventually lead to the Dragons taking a 2-0 lead with 7:00 to play in the first quarter, when Ryan Belka served up Clifton Simeon for his first goal of the season.
Notre Dame would notch the only goal of the second quarter, getting on the board with 12:23 to play in the first half. The teams could not get anything to find the back of the net the rest of the half.
The Irish put together the only scoring flurry of the afternoon in the third quarter, when they scored three straight goals to start the period and take a 4-2 lead. Prosser got Drexel back on the board with 3:33 to go in the third, pulling Drexel back within a goal as Kevin Stockel fed him out front.
After Tyler Kimball put Notre Dame back up by two late in the third, Drexel opened the fourth quarter with two goals to even the score at five. Prosser got the first of those goals with 13:09 to play in the fourth, his second of the day off Brendan Glynn’s second assist. Minutes later, Robert Church evened things up off a feed from behind the net by Kyle Bergman.
Less than ninety seconds later, Notre Dame regained the lead when Sean Rogers fired just over Drexel goalie Mark Manos’ shoulder, hitting the post and getting a fortunate bounce into the net. The Dragons had several breaks go against them on Saturday afternoon, as they hit three posts on their offensive end only to see the deciding goal hit a post and bounce the Irish’s way late.
Manos (Salesianum School) finished with five saves, including several point-blank, impressive stops in holding Notre Dame to just one score in the first half.
Thomas won control back for Drexel after the Dragons fell behind, and with just over a minute to play, Drexel went up a man when Devon Dobson was called for pushing, a 30-second penalty. They worked the ball around, but despite the extra man could not find an opening in the stingy Notre Dame defense. With the penalty over and time winding down, Drexel forced the action in close to the net, but lost control of the ball as the Irish scooped it up and preserved the victory.
St. Joseph’s 6, Wagner 5
The Hawks won their second consecutive game of the season. Strong play from the freshmen trio of Will Farrell (St. Joseph’s Prep), Michael Dougherty (Malvern Prep) and Josh Cavanaugh (Springfield-Delco) propelled the Hawks to their second win of the season.
After a scoreless first frame, the Seahawks posted two goals in the second to go up on Saint Joseph’s. Cavanaugh and Dougherty came off the bench to give the Hawks a much needed spark by adding three goals in a minute and 33 seconds. Dougherty added the first two goals (9:07, 8:22) with Cavanaugh setting up the second to tie it. Cavanaugh then added the first goal of his career at 7:24 to take the lead, 3-2, into half time.
Again, Wagner came out strong to start the third with an early two goals to recapture the lead at 4-3. Senior Bobby Hurley (St. Joseph’s Prep) capitalized on two opportunities in the final minute as Johnny Simanski and Kyle Williams helped set up the scoring chances.
With a 5-4 lead to begin the final quarter, senior Augustus Quinzani added an insurance goal to put SJU up by two. Wagner would go on to add one more goal in the quarter to finalize the score at 6-5.
“I thought we played solid defense in stretches and when we broke down, Griffin Ferrigan made some key saves,” said head coach Taylor Wray. “You need that combination of solid defense and goaltending to win these tight games. Will Farrell came out determined, causing big turnovers, which is impressive for a freshman.”
Rutgers 9, Lafayette 6
Lafayette dropped a non-conference decision to host Rutgers. The Leopards fell to 2-2 despite two goals each from Greg Allis and Doug Prusoff.
Lafayette got on the board first when Allis beat Rutgers goalkeeper Rudy Butler six minutes into the game. Allis’ tally was his sixth of the season.
Rutgers controlled the action for the rest of the period and had a 4-1 lead after the first quarter of play. The Scarlet Knights tied the game when Will Mangan took a pass from Nick DePaolero and beat Lafayette goalie Andrijko Andrusko (Holy Ghost Prep) at the 7:53 mark.
A little more than two minutes after Mangan’s score, Michael Diehl put the home team ahead with an unassisted score. Duncan Clancy and Brian Gross added onto the lead for Rutgers to increase the cushion to three. Gross’ tally came with seven seconds to play in the quarter and was assisted by Diehl.
The Leopards recorded the only goal of the second quarter when Prusoff found the back of the cage at 10:33 to cut the deficit in half as Rutgers took a 4-2 lead into the break.
Nicholas Zerillo opened the third quarter scoring at 9:33 to increase the Rutgers lead to 5-2. Three minutes later, Allis then hooked up with sophomore Jake Mann to pull Lafayette within two.
The Scarlet Knights responded with a goal from Scott Klimchak, assisted by Diehl at 2:57 before Brian Bock capitalized on a man-up goal with 33 seconds to play in the quarter to make it a 6-4 game.
Klimchak added another goal prior to Prusoff scoring his second of the game for Lafayette with 7:55 to play. The Scarlet Knights then added two goals over the next four minutes to go ahead 9-5. Allis added a late marker for the Maroon and White to run the final score to 9-6.
Andrusko totaled 11 saves in the Lafayette cage while Butler made eight stops for Rutgers. Rutgers held the edge in ground balls (23-16) and won 14-of-17 faceoffs while Lafayette forced 15 turnovers and gave the ball away nine times. Brian Bock (Spring-Ford) scored once for Lafayette.
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