Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/4/24
From Press Releases
The Lehigh men’s lacrosse team will play for a Patriot League championship Sunday as the second-seeded Mountain Hawks will meet No. 4 Boston University Sunday in the championship game at Army’s Michie Stadium. Game time is set for noon with television coverage on CBS Sports Network.
But this game has even more of a special feel for Philly lacrosse fans.
Lehigh is led by Will Scudder, a Haverford School alum in his first season as head coach after 10 years as an assistant (and 4 years as a player). Meanwhile, BU is led by Ryan Polley, a Malvern Prep grad in his 11th season as the lone head coach for the Terriers.
So, now at the college level, it’s a Haverford School/Malvern Prep rivalry game. Stakes are high as the winner secures the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Mountain Hawks (9-6) have won five straight games to reach the championship game for the first time since 2021.
Lehigh has won Patriot League Tournament titles in 2012 and 2013 and was the league’s automatic qualifier after the 2021 championship game was canceled due to COVID protocols. The Mountain Hawks will play a title game for the first time since 2019 when Lehigh fell to Army in Baltimore.
In Friday night’s semifinal, Lehigh used a dominant second half performance, highlighted by a 6-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to knock off Navy 12-8. Dakota Eierman broke a 5-5 tie with an unassisted goal with 5:49 remaining in the third and the Mountain Hawks took off from there. A Peter Theodoropoulos goal put Lehigh up 11-5 with just over five and a half minutes remaining.
Senior Scott Cole led the way offensively with three goals and an assist, with the three tallies moving Cole into a tie with Mark Duncan ’98 and Dan Taylor ’15 for Lehigh’s career goals record (128).
Sophomore Richard Checo was dominant on the defensive end, with an NCAA record-tying eight caused turnovers to go along with eight ground balls. The Mountain Hawks took control of the game by keeping Navy off the scoreboard for a 16 minute period spanning the third and fourth quarters Friday night.
Lehigh’s championship game opponent, Boston University, comes in with a 10-6 overall mark. The Terriers have played five consecutive one-goal games and rebounded from an overtime loss to Lehigh April 20 at the Ulrich Sports Complex with three consecutive one-goal victories. BU needed three overtimes to top Colgate in the Patriot League quarterfinals last Tuesday and then knocked off top seed Army West Point Friday 11-10 on Jake Cates’ man-up goal in overtime.
In the first meeting between the two teams, Lehigh battled back from a 9-4 deficit late in the third quarter to secure a key Patriot League victory. Cole delivered the game-tying goal with 21 seconds remaining in regulation before Eierman won it in the final minute of the first overtime period.
Lehigh leads the all-time series versus Boston University 8-4.
TERRIER TIDBITS
*Junior faceoff specialist Matt Fritz (Wissahickon) has enjoyed a strong season, winning 147 of 270 draws for a .544 percentage.
*The Terriers advanced to Sunday’s championship game thanks to their second overtime victory of the postseason, as graduate student Jake Cates scored 23 seconds into overtime to lift BU to an 11-10 victory over top-seeded and No.11 Army West Point on Friday.
*It was the Terriers’ third straight win and fifth straight one-goal game.
*Graduate student Louis Perfetto led BU with four points (1g, 3a), including the assist on Cates’ winner and two points (1g, 1a) in the fourth quarter. Perfetto enters Sunday ranked second in the nation in both points per game (5.63) and total points (90). He has recorded at least three points in all but one game and averaged 6.0 points per game over his last seven starts, including 21 points (8g, 13a) in the last three games.
*Graduate student Vince D’Alto notched a hat trick on Friday and enters Sunday ranked second on the Terriers in goals (41), assists (30) and points (71).
*Junior Brenden Kelly scored his 40th goal of the season on Friday to make BU the only school in the country to produce three 40-goal scorers this season.
*Graduate student Roy Meyer scored a key goal late in the fourth quarter after securing one of his five ground balls, and he also led BU with three caused turnovers against the Black Knights.
