Easton, PA – Lehigh closed out its season with a dramatic 7-6 victory over archrival Lafayette on Saturday evening, in a game that saw no scoring in the entire fourth quarter.
Greg Morin and
Andrew Lucas both found the back of the net three times for Lehigh, while in goal for the Mountain Hawks,
Tom Ellis had ten big saves.
With the victory, Lehigh closes out the season at 4-10, 2-5 in Patriot League play, while the Leopards fall to 2-12 overall, and 1-6 in league action.
Lehigh got on the board first when Lucas found the back of the net at the 14:09 mark of the first quarter to put the Mountain Hawks in front 1-0. Lafayette would strike next as Bart Seifert scored a goal of his own with 2:47 to play in the period and the game was knotted at one. Lucas answered right back for the Mountain Hawks however, as he again found the net, this time with 2:11 to go in the opening period, and at the end of the first the score was 2-1 in favor of the Brown and White.
Morin then scored two of his goals within the opening four minutes of the second quarter and Lehigh held a commanding 4-1 advantage. But Seifert struck again, this time at the 11:38 clip of the second quarter, and the Lehigh lead was cut in half to 4-2. Alec Hoof then scored the only goal of the night for Lehigh by someone not named Morin or Lucas and the lead was back to three. It appeared as though the game would remain that way going into halftime, until Leo Stinson netted his first goal of the evening with just 12 seconds to play in the half. Once again, the Lehigh lead was trimmed to two, and after the first 30 minutes of action, the Mountain Hawks stood in front at 5-3.
Lafayette scored the second half’s first goal and pulled to within one, but Lucas answered back for the Mountain Hawks at the 8:30 clip of the third and the score was now 6-4 in favor of the Brown and White. Seifert then scored two more goals for Lafayette to tie the score at six, and this game had all of the makings of a classic. Morin then took a pass from David Gaunt and with only 24 seconds remaining in the third quarter, he slipped one past the Leopard goalie to put Lehigh in front 7-6.
Lafayette would outshoot Lehigh 11-1 in the fourth quarter, and scooped up six groundballs to Lehigh’s one, but it was to no avail, as the Mountain Hawks hung on for the big win over their archrivals. David Walsh recorded an assist for Lehigh on the evening, while Tom Weiss won 13 face-offs and scooped up a game-high eight groundballs on the evening. Seifert led the Leopards with four goals for the game, and as a team, Lafayette outshot Lehigh 32-21, but it did not matter, as Lehigh was able to pick up the victory.
