Mountain Hawks pick up first Patriot League victory

– Behind three goals each from Blake Best and Alec Hoof, Lehigh registered its second consecutive victory and first in Patriot League play with a 13-8 win over Holy Cross at the Ulrich Sports Complex on Saturday afternoon. Lehigh unleashed 38 shots on the afternoon, while holding the Crusaders to just 22. With the victory, Lehigh improves to 2-7 on the season, 1-2 in Patriot League play, while Holy Cross falls to 2-5 on the season, 0-4 in league play.

Best got the day started for Lehigh with a goal at the 13:39 mark of the first quarter off of an assist from Stephen Marino. However, Holy Cross came right back on the strength of a Paul LeBlanc goal at the 11:51 mark to tie the affair at one. The Mountain Hawks then turned it up a notch offensively as Hoof, Marino and Best all scored for Lehigh to put the Brown and White in the lead at 4-1.

The Crusaders responded with two goals of their own, but Andrew Lucas found the back of the net two times within a span of 38 seconds and Lehigh was in front 6-3. Holy Cross opened the scoring in the second half on a Mike McKee goal at the 12:32 mark of the third quarter, and the Mountain Hawk lead was down to 6-4. Lehigh however, unleashed three consecutive scores, one each by Kevin Hartman, Marino and Hoof and at the 2:52 mark of the third quarter, Lehigh was in front 9-4. Hoof added one more goal with just three seconds left in the third quarter and Lehigh took a 10-5 advantage going into the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter began a little shaky for Lehigh as Holy Cross closed the gap to 10-8 at the 6:58 mark of the quarter, but the Mountain Hawks dug deep and were able to come away with their first league win of the season. Mike Osborne scored twice and Best added his third goal on the day and the Mountain Hawks prevailed 13-8.

Tom Weiss was dominant all afternoon on face-offs, winning 20 of 25, while in goal Tom Ellis stopped nine Crusader shots. Marino, Greg Morin, and Osborne all dished out two assists for the Mountain Hawks and Jeff King scooped up a team high three groundballs on the afternoon.

Holy Cross was led in scoring by Billy Klotz who registered three goals on the day.

Head Coach Chris Wakely liked the way his team started the game off and how the Mountain Hawks continued to apply pressure on both the offensive and defensive ends. “We had a good first quarter, having a 3-1 lead, which we have not had all season. Then we were up 6-3 at half, which is good, we always would like to play with the lead.” Wakely continues, “Our offense moved the ball well, and Tom Weiss did an outstanding job on face-offs for us. We (the coaching staff) talked about that before the game that if he could control the face-offs like he did against Marist that we would be in good shape.”

Lehigh returns to action on Tuesday when the Mountain Hawks play host to Wagner from the Ulrich Sports Complex. That game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 and all of the action can be heard live on Lehigh’s website at www.lehighsports.com.

Lehigh University Athletics

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Mountain Hawks pick up first Patriot League victory

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