Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/12/17
The Lafayette men’s lacrosse team posted its first win of the season in signature fashion on Saturday afternoon at Fisher Stadium, knocking off Navy by a score of 9-8.
The Leopards used a strong start and held on to defeat a Navy team that was ranked 10th in the country at the beginning of the year and 18th as recently as Feb. 28. Junior Luke Smith scored all three of his goals in the opening 30 minutes, helping to a 6-3 lead at the halftime break. From there, Navy cut it to one late, but Lafayette saw out the final 7:43 without a goal from either side for the victory.
“I thought it was a great effort in all facets of the game,” head coach Jim Rogalski said. “The guys really understood and executed the gameplan very well and I’m proud of them and their effort to get the win.”
The win is just the second for the Leopards in 18 meetings all-time with the Mids and improves Lafayette to 1-5 overall on the season and 1-2 in Patriot League play. Navy, receiving votes in the latest national rankings, drops to 2-5 and 1-2 in conference action.
“We knew that they would put a lot of pressure on our defense and it’s nothing new to us,” Smith added. “We wanted to change up our offense a little bit with me in the middle and it worked out pretty well today.”
The Leopards set the tone from the opening faceoff, scoring the game’s first two goals as Smith and Scott McAvoy (Wyomissing) beat Navy freshman goalie Ryan Kern (Salesianum School, 10 saves) and his old Duke’s LC teammate for a 2-0 lead after five minutes. Navy answered at 9:31 to get on the board, but Smith finished an Eric Joseph feed to close out the opening 15 minutes with a 3-1 advantage.
The teams traded goals through the majority of the second quarter as the Leopards’ lead stood at 4-3 with 3:07 left in the half. Lafayette closed strong, though, as Smith and Joseph each scored with less than two minutes remaining to send the game into the break with momentum on the home sideline and a 6-3 advantage.
Navy shrunk the gap to two goals to start the third quarter, but three of the next four came from Lafayette to make it 9-5 into the fourth. The Mids gave the Maroon and White a run, slotting three past Lafayette goalie Jonathan Anastos in a three-minute span to make it 9-8 with 7:43 to go. However, that would end the scoring as Anastos made some key stops down the stretch and the Leopards held on for the 9-8 win.
The sophomore goalie, second in the Patriot League in saves per game at 13.00 per contest, was excellent once again, picking up a much-deserved win with 11 saves, six coming in the fourth quarter.
Penn State 15, Harvard 12
The third-ranked Lions (7-0) tied their best start in program history on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Harvard Crimson (4-1), 15-12, to prolong its win streak to seven straight to open the 2017 season.
The 2017 team’s 7-0 start is the best in 25 years for the program, tying that of the 1992 team. Penn State has a chance to break the record for the best start, hosting Fairfield next Friday for a chance to go 8-0 for the first time ever.
The Nittany Lions were led by senior midfield Matt Florence and freshman attackman Mac O’Keefe, as the duo logged a combined six goals on a pair of hat tricks to pace the Penn State goal-scoring efforts. Mike Sutton (St. Augustrine Prep) and Grant Ament (Haverford School) each had two goals and an assist, defenseman Chris Sabia (Haverford School) had a goal and two caused turnovers and Tyler Chambers (Episcopal Academy) had an assist for the Lions.
Peter Blynn (Haverford School) had two goals and caused turnover and Sean Coleman (La Salle) had two caused turnovers and a groundball for Harvard.
Army 6, Lehigh 4
The Mountain Hawks’ defense impressed for a second straight week, allowing just four even strength goals against an Army West Point team averaging 13.4 over its first five games, but it wasn’t enough as Lehigh (3-3, 1-2 Patriot League) dropped the Patriot contest.
Sophomore Craig Chick led the Lehigh defense with game highs in groundballs (8) and caused turnovers (4) to improve his season totals to 27 and 18, respectively. Classmate Eddie Bouhall also had four groundballs while Matt Rimol tallied a groundball and two caused turnovers. Junior Danny Norris (Avon Grove) finished with four groundballs and a caused turnover. Over the last two games, Lehigh’s defense has now allowed just 11 goals (nine even strength). Colgate entered last weekend’s game coming off 15 goals at Bucknell, while Army scored 48 goals over its previous three games entering Saturday.
Andrew Pettit (Tower Hill) had two goals for Lehigh and John Mehok (Bishop Shanahan) one.
Michigan 13, Penn 12
Sophomore defenseman Nick DeCaprio led by scooping up three ground balls and leading the team with two caused turnovers as Michigan (7-1) stunned No, 10 Penn.
Kevin McGeary (Malvern Prep) had five goals for the Quakers (3-2), who rallied from an 11-5 fourth-quarter deficit and pulled within one twice at the end. Simon Mathias scored three goals while Reilly Hipfeldt (Haverford School) had a goal and an assist while Adam Goldner (Malvern Prep) and Chris Hilburn (Malvern Prep) each scored once.
Binghamton 13, Delaware 9
The Blue Hens had their four-game win streak snapped on a frigid day as Binghamton converted four man-up goals and committed just six turnovers at Delaware Stadium.
The Blue Hens (5-3), whose win streak was its longest since 2010, fell behind in the third quarter but battled back and cut the lead to 8-7 heading into the final stanza. The Bearcats (4-1), who won their second straight, promptly scored the first four goals of the fourth quarter to take control and move on to the win.
Delaware senior Trupert Ortlieb (Episcopal Academy) notched his third hat trick of the season with three goals while freshman Charlie Kitchen (St. Augustine Prep) scored twice and dished out an assist, Joe Eisele (St. Augustine Prep) added two scores, and Will Hirschmann netted one goal and assisted on three others. The game was played under frigid temperatures and gusty winds with a wind chill of 20 degrees at game time.
The Hens held big advantages in shots (41-27), groundballs (33-18), and faceoffs (16-9) but Binghamton was efficient, scoring 13 goals on 27 shots, converting on four of five extra-man opportunities, and committing just six turnovers, tied for the lowest amount forced by Delaware this year. Tom Moore led the Bearcats with four goals and three assists.