Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/20/16
From Press Release
Gerard Brown made sure the Ursinus men’s lacrosse team kicked off the 2016 season in style.
The sophomore midfielder exploded for career highs of three goals and five assists, setting a program record with an eight-point outburst to spark the No. 13 Bears (1-0) to a 14-6 triumph over visiting Albright (0-1) today. Seniors Logan Panaccione and Tucker Noel also registered hat-tricks for Ursinus, which won its seventh straight season opener on a beautiful afternoon at Patterson Field.
Brown needed just over a minute to dent the scoreboard, an unassisted marker that staked the Bears to an early lead. The sophomore then assisted on tallies by seniors Rob Dewey and Mike Durst that bookended a strike from Albright’s James Egleston.
Senior James Fairchild (Malvern Prep) netted his second career goal off the ensuing faceoff, giving Ursinus two scores in a seven-second span. The Lions answered, but Brown connected with Panaccione and Noel finished off a feed from junior Matthew Cioeta (Sun Valley) to open up a 6-2 margin.
Leading 6-3 at halftime, the Bears rattled off four unanswered goals out of the break to put it away. Freshman Sam Isola opened his collegiate account with an unassisted strike before Noel and Panaccione found the back of the net just 13 seconds apart. Senior Patrick O’Donoghue tallied his fifth career goal, an unassisted marker that made it 10-3 late in the third.
Brown scored twice more in the fourth quarter to polish off his first career hat-trick, and Panaccione got his on a helper from Brown with 3:22 to play.
