Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/6/16
From Press Release
It took the University of Delaware just 66 seconds to score in its men’s lacrosse season opener Saturday afternoon, but host Bucknell answered with six straight goals of its own and never looked back in handing the Blue Hens a 13-5 setback at Christy Mathewson Stadium.
Delaware (0-1) fell behind 7-2 at the break and managed just three goals in the second half in dropping its season opener for the second straight year. Bucknell (1-0) received votes in the preseason USILA Top 20 poll and is coming off a 9-6 record in 2015.
Blue Hen junior attackman Paul Major (Spring-Ford) led the Delaware effort with two goals and an assist while senior midfielder Chris Colaneri contributed a goal and two assists. Also for the Hens, freshman attack Joe Eisele (St. Augustine Prep) had a goal and an assist in his collegiate debut, senior midfielder John O’Connor contributed a goal, and freshman midfielder Andrew Romagnoli added an assist.
“Although the final score was disappointing, I felt our players played hard all four quarters,” said Delaware head coach Bob Shillinglaw. “Faceoffs played a key part with Bucknell winning 15 to our 7 doubling their offensive opportunities. We created offensive opportunities but our shot placement needs improvement with 15 of our 30 shots going off cage. This team will return to the practice field in Monday ready to get better.”
Bucknell got three goals each from Will Sands and Connor O’Hara with Sands adding two assists. Sean Doyle and Thomas Flibotte also contributed two goals each and Matt Gilray assisted on three goals. Tommy O’Connor (Malvern Prep) had a goal, an assist a groundball and a caused turnover.
Delaware sophomore goalkeeper Parker Ferrigan, a transfer from Syracuse, took the loss in his UD debut as he allowed 10 goals and posted five saves before giving way to senior Conor Peaks (three saves).
The Hens stayed close in most of the statistical categories as the Bison held slim advantages of 34-30 in shots and 29-25 in groundballs but posted a clear 15-7 advantages in faceoffs and scored on both extra man opportunities.
Colaneri scored just his sixth career goal 1:06 into the game off a feed from Eisle, but Bucknell tied it up on a man-up goal by O’Hara seven minutes later and Bison added two more goals over the next 69 seconds.
Bucknell took a 4-1 lead to close the opening period and outscored the Hens 3-1 in the second for the 7-2 advantage at intermission. Sands scored twice in the third quarter as Bucknell built the lead to 10-2 and O’Hara scored twice more in final stanza.
Jake Hervada (Haverford Schhool) won 6 of 14 face-offs for the Hens and Austin Haynes (Moorestown) had three caused turnovers and three groundballs while defenseman Carson Scott (Conestoga) had two caused turnovers.
HEN SCRATCHINGS
• Delaware will continue action next Saturday when the Blue Hens host Mt. St. Mary’s in its home opener at Delaware Stadium at 1 p.m.
• Seven players were making their Delaware debuts on Saturday
• Each of the previous four games between Delaware and Bucknell were decided by two goals or less
• Major recorded his fourth career multiple-goal game for Delaware
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