Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/8/20
From Press Release
Trailing 5-3 early in the second quarter, the No. 19 Lehigh men’s lacrosse team responded with five straight goals and eight of the next 10 to defeat visiting Utah, 16-11 on Saturday at the Ulrich Sports Complex.
Sophomore Tommy Schelling paced the offense with a career-high seven goals to come just one shy of tying the program record. He also had two assists to become the first Mountain Hawk with nine or more points since Dan Taylor in 2019. Defensively, sophomore Anthony Tangredi put forth a big game with seven groundballs and three caused turnovers.
“Really happy to win today. We knew it would be a tough battle,” said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. “Utah is a very good team. I thought offensively, they were excellent today. They scrapped really hard in between the lines. They gave us some fits early in the faceoff game.
“We had to earn everything we got today. I want to tip my cap to them. I’m proud of the way our guys continued to fight. I don’t think it was clean by any stretch, but we’re very, very happy to get the win.”
Schelling’s seven goals were most by a Lehigh player since Taylor scored seven on April 18, 2014 at Lafayette. Many others contributed offensively, including fifth-year senior Andrew Pettit (Tower Hill-DE) who opened the scoring just 1:05 into the contest and finished with two goals and two assists. Senior Andrew Eichelberger impressed with two goals and an assist as well.
“It was awesome to have Andrew Pettit back,” said Cassese. “It was so fun to see him get prepared for gameday and how excited he was. He looked like he was playing his first game as a freshman again.
“It’s been a tough stretch for him and obviously, to sit out for a full year as a senior and then come back, it was a storybook start to this game. Very happy to have him back, and others as well. Kevin Gersbeck missed all of last season as well due to injury. He got the start today as well. It was fun to see both those guys back in the lineup.”
Freshman Christian Mule’ scored three goals, including two on the extra man, as the Mountain Hawks finished 5-of-7 on the man advantage. The five man-up goals were Lehigh’s s most since it also had five on Feb. 6, 2016 vs. NJIT.
Along with Tangredi’s big day, junior Matt Douglas tallied four groundballs and a caused turnover. Senior Erik DiGirolamo (Parkland) posted two groundballs and two caused turnovers. Senior Conor Gaffney (Lenape) finished 16-of-26 facing off with 11 groundballs.
Freshman Mac Costin (Haverford School) had three goals for Utah.
“Offensively, we really shared the ball well and were able to manipulate some of the matchups,” said Cassese. “Obviously, that showed in one guy having a bunch of goals.
“Tommy Schelling had a big day and was certainly really good, but I was also proud of all six offensive guys playing together and finding him in spots that were really advantageous. After struggling early defensively, we really settled down. We were able to get them on their heels a little bit in the second half. We got going in the faceoff dot in the second half, which really helped us extend our lead.”
Georgetown 17, Lafayette 3
James Reilly (Conestoga) won 10 of 16 faceoffs to lead the Hoyas to the easy win