Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/23/20 – From Press Releases
Prior to Saturday’s showdown at Monmouth, head coach Ben DeLuca told his University of Delaware men’s lacrosse team that he was excited to see how the group would respond from the tough loss this past Tuesday at Saint Joseph’s.
That excitement was backed up by a stifling defensive effort by the Blue Hens, which led to an 11-2 road win over the Hawks on a blustery afternoon at Kessler Field.
“I’m really proud of the effort our guys put forth today. That’s exactly the type of response that the coaching staff was looking for,” DeLuca said. “I told them afterwards, the key was the preparation and their approach the process since Tuesday’s game. Moving forward, it’s critical that they know how the process and the approach they take to practice leading up to each game is how we are going to get to where we want to get to as a program.”
Senior Matt DeLuca allowed just one goal in nearly 55 minutes of action, while racking up 11 saves, several of which were point blank range. Sophomore Owen Grant led a defensive unit with three caused turnovers and two groundballs and allowed just nine shots total in the first half.
Seven different Blue Hens had caused turnovers with the Hawks committing 20 on the day.
The game also featured the battle of the brothers from Haverford School and Mesa Lacrosse as Delaware senior co-captain Jake Hervada won 4 of 9 faceoffs and Monmouth junior co-captain defenseman Chris Hervada was a key on defense.
“We wanted to get the taste out of our mouth from Tuesday. We knew that wasn’t Delaware Lacrosse and we wanted to respond and I thought we were able to do that today,” Matt DeLuca said. “As a defensive unit, we’re continue to build chemistry and the group in front of me is so talented and allows me to get the angles I need to and they are really the ones who allow me to do my job.”
Offensively, sophomore Tye Kurtz had an outstanding day with five goals and two assists, while both Charlie Kitchen (St. Augustine Prep) and Michael Robinson each had two goals on the day. Sophomore Clay Miller had four points with one goal and three assists on the afternoon.
Delaware’s offense went to work early, with Kurtz finding Kitchen under two minutes into the game for a 1-0 lead. It’s the 36 straight game that Kitchen has scored a goal, extending the nation’s longest active goal-scoring streak.
Lehigh 17, NJIT 8
After being held scoreless in the first quarter, the 18th ranked Mountain Hawks exploded for 17 goals over the game’s final 41:37 to down NJIT.
Freshman attackman Christian Mule’ led the offense with a career-high five goals while senior Ryan Klose scored a career-high four goals out of the midfield. One game after tying a program-record eight goals, senior Andrew Pettit was a distributor. The fifth-year senior finished with a goal and four assists. Now 3-1 following two wins in three days, the Mountain Hawks return home next Saturday to host Navy in the Patriot League opener for both sides.
Lehigh’s leading scorer, Tommy Schelling, was held point-less in the first half, but still finished with three goals and an assist for his third hat trick in four games. In the process, the sophomore eclipsed 50 career points and now has 23 points in four games in 2020. The trio of Mule’, Klose and Schelling scored 12 of the Mountain Hawks’ 17 goals. Freshman John Sidorski netted his first two career goals as well.
Junior Teddy Leggett and freshman Jack Spence (Springfield-Delco) led the defense with two caused turnovers apiece. As a team, the Mountain Hawks were dominant in the faceoff circle, winning 24-of-29 faceoffs. Senior Conor Gaffney (Lenape) led the way, winning 13-of-14 with 10 groundballs. Sophomore Mike Sisselberger (Southern Lehigh) was 10-of-14 with seven GBs.
St. Joseph’s 10, Providence 8
Riding the momentum of an 11-8 win over #20 Delaware on Tuesday, the Hawks handed Providence its first loss of the season. With the win, the Hawks improve to 3-1 on the year while the Friars, who received votes in all three major polls entering this week, now stand at 3-1.
Sophomore face-off specialist Zach Cole (Lenape)ncontinued to impress, going a blistering 19-of 22 (86.4 percent) from the X, which included an 11-of-12 first half and a 6-of-6 second quarter, with 16 ground balls.
“Zach was once again one of the most dominant players on the field,” said head coach Taylor Wray following the game. “He continues to give us a possession advantage that allows our offense to get into the grove. He makes it very hard for the other team to get anything going.”
“This is a huge momentum swing,” added Cole of defeating #20 Delaware and Providence. “Penn State was a huge learning experience for us. We’re going to take it one game at a time and work hard in practice.”
Freshman attackman Matt Bohmer (4g on five shots, 1a) and redshirt freshman attackman Levi Anderson (3g, 1a) led SJU’s offense while the defensive core of senior goalkeeper Mike Adler (3-1) and close defensemen Tyler Makar, Josh Bosher, and, in his first career start, Sean Voelkel held the Friars to eight goals on the afternoon and redshirt freshman defenseman Joe Burnham (La Salle) caused two key turnovers in the final minutes.
Villanova 10, Hofstra 8
The Wildcats picked up their second straight win.
The Wildcats had an early surge of goals that helped to secure the win. After the Pride netted the opening goal in the first seconds Villanova answered with four straight of their own. Sophomore Matt Campbell set up Patrick Daly to tie the game at one apiece and then after it was Campbell who found the back of the cage on a dish from Connor Kirst on an EMO opportunity. Kirst would just 30 seconds later net his first of the day on a pass from Keegan Khan to go up 3-1. To close out the run SSDM Chet Comizio scored his second career goal on a pass from Campbell. Hofstra’s Ryan Tierney would net one before the end of the quarter to make the Wildcats lead 4-2.
The second quarter saw a pair of goals by both teams, with Kirst and Corey McManus netting Villanova’s two as the opening and closing goals of the quarter. Villanova went into halftime up 6-4.
Tierney opened the second half with a goal to push the game to one but Sam Parkinson would score his first career goal in the 8th minute on a pass from Daly to make the lead back up to two. Under a minute later Campbell and Kirst worked together score the Wildcats eighth goal of the game.
Daly netted two unassisted goals to close out the game while the Pride would score three to make the final 10-8.
In goal sophomore Will Vitton picked up his second win of the week. The keeper finished with 13 saves on the day including six of those coming in the second quarter. Justin Coppola took 18 of the 21 faceoffs on the day and won nine along with four ground balls. Khan had a team high five ground balls on the day while redshirt junior Patrick Kennedy had two caused turnovers.
Binghamton 11, Lafayette 10, (3OT)
The effort deserved better for the Leopards, who fell in the third overtime period.
Trailing throughout the contest, the Maroon and White never quit, erasing a four-goal and three three-goal deficits to tie it at the end of regulation. With 31 seconds to play and the Leopards down one, freshman Evan Lotz (Malvern Prep) found sophomore Cole Dutton, who beat the Binghamton keeper for the fourth tie of the second half and bonus lacrosse.
The first two overtime periods featured three shots from the home side and two from Lafayette, but none good enough to win it. In the third, though, it was Ryan McBeth who beat Leopard goalie Ryan Ness on a feed from Kevin Winkoff to end it with a final of 11-10.
Ness and the Leopards fall to 0-4 in defeat as the sophomore did all he could with 12 saves on the day. Binghamton’s Teddy Dolan was outstanding between the pipes as his nine saves earned him his first win of the 2020 season.
Dutton was tough to stop on the offensive end with two goals and two assists for four points to lead the Leopard attack. Sophomore Andrew Robbins and freshmen Macklin Fitzpatrick and Ryan Duncan each added two scores each, while junior Bryan Hess and freshman Brian Collins also added a tally.
Freshman Tommy McGee was excellent on the defensive side with three caused turnovers and senior Chris Adamo added four ground balls to his caused turnover from the wing. Binghamton led in shots, 42-29, including 5-3 in the three extra frames, but Lafayette won the groundball battle, 39-30.
The home side took 13-of-24 faceoffs on the day as Leopard freshman James Turco collected 10-of-23 at the X.
Albany 14, Drexel 13
The Dragons suffered their second-straight one-goal loss on the road as Albany scored with 11 seconds to go. Ryan Genord had five goals and Aidan Coll (Hill School) had three goals and an assist for the Dragons.