Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/1724
From Press Release
After building an 8-6 halftime lead, the Eastern men’s lacrosse team scored the first six goals of the second half to open the 2024 season with a 14-7 win. Ethan Myers made 14 stops in goal, Nicholas Fanelli (Pennridge) with a five-point day, and Head Coach Colin Piper picked up a win in his debut in charge.
Connor Bachman (3G) opened the scoring with an unassisted tally in the sixth minute. Less than two minutes later Nicholas Fanelli set up Gavin Stark to double the Eastern lead. The host Shoremen would answer, but they would never equalize in the game. Nick Litzenberger (3G) put the Eagles up 3-1 and Brett Williamson scored a man-down goal for a 4-1 edge.
After Washington College tallied late in the first quarter, Christopher Fanelli finished from Stark to open the second. The goal, the 91st of his career, moves him alone into the eighth spot on Eastern’s career list.
The Shoremen got a faceoff goal to grab the goal back, but Nicholas Fanelli restored the lead to three less than a minute later. The Eagles got their own faceoff goal to go up 7-3. Patrick McClain won the face-off and then got it back from Nicholas Fanelli. McClain won 14-of-24 faceoffs and finished with 11 ground balls.
The hosts scored the next two goals, their only two-goal burst of the match, before Christopher Fanelli set up his brother for an 8-5 lead with six minutes left. The Eagles had several chances to stretch their lead, but could not muster another goal on the way to the 8-6 haltime lead.
The Eagles took 23 first-half shots but were 0-for-3 on man-up chances.
Bachman scored the first two goals of the second half, and Brett Williamson and NIck Litzenberger also scored twice. Washington College got their only goal after the intermission with 50 seconds left in the game.
Piper noted Myers’ performance in goal and the work of defensive midfielder Dominic Marangoni. Stark finished with a goal and three assists, and Bachman, Litzenberger and Williamson all had hat tricks.
Swarthmore 23, Widener 2
The No. 17 Garnet opened its season with a bang after dominating Widener. The team’s goal total marked the most goals the program has scored on opening day since defeating West Chester University, 23-11, on March 6, 1992.
Swarthmore received goals from 14 different individuals, which included six players recording their first collegiate goals. Upperclassmen Jayson Batie, Matthew Martinez, Nico Campana, Liam Halstead and Roe Crawford celebrated their first scores, while first-year Jamie Weyerhaeuser found the back of the net in his first career game.
Michael Hardiman and Von Mabbs each paced the Garnet scorers with five points. Hardiman collected a game-high four goals with one assist, while Mabbs had four assists with one goal scored. Carter Strauch also tallied four goals on the afternoon, while Batie scored his first three career goals to earn a hat trick.
Drew Tyson played the bulk of the minutes in goal for the Garnet with six saves and one goal allowed in over 32-minutes of action. Samuel Cristinzio and Shane Nachshen also saw time between the pipes with Nachshen shutting Widener out in 17-minutes of play.
Swarthmore dominated Widener in every aspect of the game. The Garnet won the faceoff battle 23-4, while also more than doubling the Pride’s ground ball total for the game. Jack McHenry went 12-of-14 on faceoffs, while Martinez was 11-of-13. McHenry also grabbed seven ground balls to lead the team.
Randolph-Macon 16, Ursinus 10
The Bears were unable to overcome a fast start by Randolph-Macon as they dropped a contest to the Yellow Jackets in their season opener.
Three Bears scored two goals in the contest and sophomore Harry Sweitzer (La Salle) led the team with three points behind two goals and one assist. Junior Christopher Pucciarelli notched two goals and first-year Jared Laskin netted two in his collegiate debut. Senior defenseman Jeff Douglas matched his career-high of four caused turnovers and picked up four ground balls.
Franklin & Marshall 20, Lebanon Valley 10
Goalie age Garito (Haverford School) posted 7 saves for the win while Liam Timmins (Germantown Academy) added two goals and two assists and Jack Luviano (Germantown Academy) had two goals and two assist. Freshman Mason Montrella (Radnor) added a goal and two assists and Colin Hueston (Malvern Prep) collected two groundballs. Freshman Luke Topley (Germantown Academy) started on defense and contributed a groundball and a caused turnover.
