Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/18/18
From Press Releases
Matthew Varian scored a career-high six goals and face-off man Jimmy Koita had a career day as Drexel defeated No. 11 Georgetown, 15-10. The Hoyas (6-1) came into the game as one of just three unbeaten teams in the nation, but Drexel scored seven straight goals in the second quarter to take a lead it would never relinquish. Drexel improved to 3-4 with the win.
Drexel went on a 7-0 run over a span of a little more than seven minutes to take control of the game. With the Dragons trailing, 4-2, early in the second quarter, Varian started the run with a pair of unassisted goals just 65 seconds apart. The Dragons took the lead for good at the 10:50 mark of the quarter when senior Jake O’Donnell tallied an unassisted goal, giving Drexel a 5-4 lead.
The Hoyas were whistled for their third face-off violation on the ensuing draw, which put Drexel on the man-up. Freshman Charles Dumas extended the Dragons’ lead with his first career goal, making it 6-4. With the teams at even strength, fellow freshmen Ryan Genord and Luke Stansfield (Penn Charter) scored three minutes apart later in the second. For Stansfield, it was his first career goal. The Hoyas were called for another face-off violation, and once again Drexel answered. O’Donnell found Varian for his third of the quarter to put Drexel ahead, 9-4. Georgetown finally broke its drought when Lucas Wittenberg scored his second of the game with 4:32 to play until halftime.
The Hoyas were able to cut the lead to three on two occasions in the third. Jake Carraway started the second half scoring before Varian answered with his fourth of the Craig Berge trimmed the lead to 10-7 with just 1:21 to play in the third, but Drexel won the next face-off and Matt Klinges fed Marshal King in transition just 17 seconds later for his seventh of the year.
Koita then won the face-off for the Dragons and fought off a number of Georgetown defenders. He found an alley towards the net and fired home a rare shot, which found the far side and gave him his first career goal, putting Drexel up 12-7 at the end of the third. Varian kept the Hoyas at bay by adding the first two goals of the fourth as Drexel rebounded from a mid-week loss to pick up its first win against a top 20 team in 2018. Varian, who also had an assist in the game, finished with his second seven-point game of the season.
Koita won all six of his face off attempts in the first quarter as the Dragons maintained the edge in possession throughout the day. He finished the day 19-for-24 and grabbed a career-high 11 ground balls. King and Reid Bowering each scored twice for Drexel. Bowering scored both of his goals in the first quarter and now has 14 goals in his last four games. Chre Teitelbaum had another solid game in the cage for Brian Voelker’s squad, turning aside 12 shots from the powerful Georgetown offense.
Will Manganiello (Penncrest) had two assists for Drexel.
Penn State 17, Fairfield 13
The Nittany Lions took down Fairfield behind an impressive offensive performance from sophomores Mac O’Keefe and Dylan Foulds as the duo combined for 15 points.
O’Keefe recorded his best game of the season, tallying six goals and adding two assists, while Foulds had his best career game, scoring a career-high four goals and adding a game-high three assists to his point total.
Junior Nick Spillane and freshman Cole Willard added three-point games as they both scored two goals and tacked on an assist.
Juniors Kevin Hill and Robby Black each found the back of the net once, while senior Ryan Keenan added a goal and an assist. Senior Tanner Peck (Avon Grove) added two assists out of the midfield, and freshman John Nostrant (Haverford School) added an assist as well.
Sophomore Gerard Arceri went 20 of 25 at the face-off ‘x,’ adding 17 ground balls to his stat line. Fellow sophomore Colby Kneese played 48:17 of game time, and only allowed five goals, and recorded three saves.
Johns Hopkins 14, Delaware 8
Through the first seven games of the 2018 season, one thing is clear. The University of Delaware men’s lacrosse team can play with anyone.
That was evident when the Blue Hens battled 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins for 50 minutes, but a big fourth quarter by the Blue Jays propelled them to a victory on a cold afternoon in Baltimore.
“I was proud of the effort our guys put forth today, I thought we really hustled and played hard,” Head Coach Ben DeLuca said. “Hopkins is an incredibly talented and well-coached team. There’s a reason they’re consistently among the best in the country. We really competed and battled them for 45 minutes.”
Sophomore Matt DeLuca was outstanding yet again, piling up 13 saves on the day and keeping the Blue Jays at bay for nearly the entire game. Entering the game, Hopkins was averaging nearly 13 goals a game, ranking in the top-five in the country in that category. JHU had just nine goals in the first 50 minutes of action.
Offensively, junior Joe Eisele (St. Augustine Prep) and sophomores Charlie Kitchen (St. Augustine Prep) and Bryce Reid (Avon Grove) all had multi-goal performances.
Brett Baskin (La Salle) scored once for Hopkins and