West Point, NY – Senior
Andrew Lucas scored six goals, and
Greg Morin added four as Lehigh picked up a 17-11 victory over Marist on Saturday afternoon on the campus of the United States Military, the Mountain Hawks first of 2005.
The Brown and White won 19 of 27 face-offs on the afternoon, an area it struggled with in the season opener last weekend vs.
Delaware. Lehigh improves to 1-1 on the season, while the Red Foxes fall to 0-1.
Lucas scored the game’s first three goals in the first
2:16 of the game and the Mountain Hawks were in front 3-0. Marist then came back with two goals of its own and pulled within one at the 7:08 mark. Morin and Robert Shrader answered for the Mountain Hawks however, and with 1:28 left in the first quarter, Lehigh was in front 5-2. A Red Foxes goal at the end of the first by Tim Iuculano, brought Marist to within two at 5-3.
Morin opened the second quarter with his second goal, but Marist came back with a goal of its own and the score stood at 6-4 at the 9:24 mark. Blake Best (Lehigh) and Keith Detelj (Marist) exchanged goals in the next 45 seconds to make the score 7-5 Lehigh, and it looked as though the Red Foxes were in position to make a move. But the Mountain Hawks reeled off four straight goals in the final 4:58 of the half, two by Lucas and one each by Michael Tabb and Gregory Furst, and the Brown and White went to the locker room in front 11-5.
Best added his second goal of the day just 1:37 into the second half, and Lehigh was up seven, at 12-5. Marist answered with one goal, but Lucas, Furst, and Best found the back of the net in a span of 2:14, and Lehigh was in front 15-5. The Red Foxes scored four straight goals, two at the end of the third quarter and two within the first six minutes of the fourth to pull to within 15-9. But Lehigh came back with two goals by Morin in a span of 1:34 and the Mountain Hawks had the win all sewn up.
Besides Lucas and Morin having solid offensive days, Best had three goals, Furst added two, and Shrader and Tabb each had one. Best had two assists, as did Shrader, while in goal for the Mountain Hawks Eric Spirko played the entire 60 minutes, sending back eight shots, as he faced 28 of them.
Lehigh was 16 of 18 on clears for the day, and out shot the Red Foxes 42-28. The Mountain Hawks scooped up 43 ground balls and forced four Marist turnovers on the afternoon.
Lehigh returns to action on Tuesday when the Mountain Hawks play host to Wagner at the Ulrich Sports Complex in the 2005 home opener. Game time is set for 4:00.
