Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/19/17
From Press Release
The Lehigh men’s lacrosse team jumped out to a 5-1 lead after one quarter and wouldn’t look back, defeating archrival Lafayette 15-7 on Saturday afternoon. Saturday’s game was presented by Yianni’s Taverna. All three starting attackmen posted five or more points for the Mountain Hawks (4-3, 2-2 Patriot League), with each setting a career high in either goals or points. Meanwhile, the defense held an opponent to seven goals or fewer for a third straight week.
“We got some good attack play today,” said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. “We also got some good defensive play, our goalie played well and Conor Gaffney (Lenape-NJ) showed up again at the faceoff square. I thought it was a full team effort overall. We hit a little bit of a lull in the second quarter offensively, but our defense really held them down. If you look at the stats, you want your attack to be putting up the points and they certainly did that today.”
Sophomore Andrew Pettit (Tower Hill-DE) scored a career-high five goals while adding an assist for six points. Classmate Tristan Rai tallied a career-high six points behind three goals and three assists, and senior Matt Raposo scored a career-high four goals, while adding an assist for five points. Senior midfielder Cody Triolo posted a career-high four points as well behind two goals and two assists.
Defensively, Lehigh caused 13 turnovers on the afternoon, 10 coming from sophomore Eddie Bouhall (4), sophomore Craig Chick (3) and junior Danny Norris (Avon Grove, 3). The totals for Bouhall and Norris tied career highs. Bouhall added four groundballs while Chick and Norris each had three. The Mountain Hawks allowed just four goals over the game’s first 51:52 until Lafayette scored with 8:08, 3:15 and 1:32 remaining as Lehigh began to clear its bench.
Triolo scored less than one minute in to give Lehigh a quick 1-0 lead. The Leopards’ first goal pulled them within 2-1, but the Mountain Hawks ended the quarter on a 3-0 run, the final two goals from Raposo, to give Lehigh a 5-1 advantage.
Lafayette pulled within 6-3 late in the second quarter, but the Mountain Hawks responded with the next three. Early in the third, Rai scored twice in a 36-second span to give Lehigh an 8-3 lead. After a Lafayette goal, the Mountain Hawks erased any doubt by scoring five straight, all in the fourth. Pettit had two goals and an assist in that span. Three of those five goals were on the extra man as Pettit’s 21st goal of the season gave Lehigh a 14-4 advantage with 8:35 left in the fourth quarter.
Pettit scored his career-high fifth goal with 5:02 on the clock to account for Lehigh’s final goal as the Mountain Hawks won their eighth straight and 15th in their last 16 tries against Lafayette.
Final shots were 38-33 in favor of Lafayette while the Mountain Hawks held a 39-36 edge in groundballs. Sophomore goaltender Chris Kiernan finished with nine saves while Lafayette’s Jonathan Anastos had seven. After winning just one of his first four faceoffs, Gaffney bounced back to win 13 of his last 18 and finish 14-of-22 with 12 groundballs. Lehigh was 4-for-4 on the extra man while Lafayette was 1-for-4.
The Mountain Hawks are now set to hit the road next weekend when they head to Navy on Saturday, Mar. 25. Opening faceoff is set for 11:30 a.m. on CBS Sports Network.
“Confidence is a big thing for us right now,” said Cassese. “It was important to have a big Patriot League win at home after we dropped one to Army last week. Now, we’re just trying to get on a roll. It doesn’t get any easier from here; we’re going to need a great week of practice. I’m sure Navy is going to be ready for us.”
Drexel 9, St. John’s 7
Drexel scored five unanswered goals to end the first half and held on for its third-straight win.
Jimmy Joe Granito had an outstanding day in the cage with 15 saves, while Cole Shafer and Robert Frazee each scored three times.