Saturday, March 26
Ulrich Sports Complex
3:00 pm
Lehigh University
5-3, 3-2PL
7
vs
12
Navy
6-2, 4-1PL
1
2
3
4
F
Navy
1
4
5
2
12
Lehigh
2
0
2
3
7
Second-quarter surge propels No. 14/16 Navy past Lehigh, 12-7
3/26/2016 6:30:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - After the Lehigh men's lacrosse team took a 2-1 lead following one quarter, Navy outscored the Mountain Hawks in the second, 4-0, on its way to a 12-7 win on a sunny Sunday afternoon in front of 1,470 fans at the Ulrich Sports Complex. Senior Reid Weber led the offense with two goals and one assist while freshman goaltender Chris Kiernan made 14 saves. Lehigh falls to 5-3 on the season and 3-2 in Patriot League play while Navy improves to 6-2 and 4-1 in the league.
Â
"I thought Navy did a great job," said Lehigh head coach Cassese. "They came out and took it to us. It was tough to recover from that second quarter. In the first quarter, we were in a good spot. In the second quarter, there were a couple plays if we could have made, we could have made it a dogfight. We knew that was going to be the game today. We would need to scrap to keep it close. We knew how good they are facing off and how good they are on defense, but we couldn't overcome getting outscored 4-0 in the second quarter."
Â
Along with Weber's three points, freshman long-stick midfielder Craig Chick had one goal and two assists along with five groundballs and two caused turnovers. Junior Ian Strain scored a career-high two goals as well while senior Billy Oppenheimer and sophomore John Mehok scored Lehigh's other goals.
Â
Navy controlled possession, winning 16-of-22 faceoffs, while Mids' goalie John Connors tallied 13 saves.
Â
"It's really hard when you're not winning draws," said Cassese. "I'm not assigning blame to anybody; it's on all of us. We're trying to figure it out. We're also going up against some pretty darn good faceoff units and we give them a lot of credit. We have to figure out how to manufacture faceoff wins. We're just not playing enough offense and we're playing way too much defense. In the sport of lacrosse, if you do that, you're not going to win very many games."
Â
After Navy scored first less than one minute into the game, the Mountain Hawks answered with goals at the 3:59 and 49-second marks, from Strain and Oppenheimer, respectively.
Â
The 2-1 scored stood held until early in the second when Patrick Keena netted his first of the game at the 11:48 mark, ending a 17:28 Navy scoreless drought. Keena went on to post three straight goals before John Trainor wrapped up the 4-0 run with 3:55 on the second-quarter clock, giving the Midshipmen a 5-2 lead at the half.
Â
The Mountain Hawks looked to have momentum when Chick scored a man-down goal off a feed from Weber just 1:21 into the third quarter. However, the Mids responded with another 4-0 run. The fourth gave Navy a 9-3 lead with 37 seconds on the third-quarter clock. Weber responded just seven seconds later off a faceoff win, but Jack Ray scored as the third quarter expired to give the Midshipmen a 10-4 lead.
Â
Early in the fourth, Strain scored his second goal on a delayed penalty, the teams traded man-up goals, then each team scored in the final 30 seconds to account for the 12-7 final.
Â
Navy held a 50-28 edge in final shots and 32-26 advantage in groundballs. Brady Dove led the faceoff charge for Navy, winning 14-of-19. The Midshipmen finished with 10 turnovers to just nine for Lehigh. Chick caused two turnovers, as did Strain and freshman Eddie Bouhall. Senior Tripp Telesco scooped five groundballs for the Mountain Hawks.
Â
"I thought our defense played well," said Cassese. "We had a bunch of young guys, a bunch of freshmen in there. I thought a couple key guys stepped up and played very well. Freshmen Craig Chick, Eddie Bouhall and Matt Rimol were very impressive today, as was Chris Kiernan in goal, another freshman. I look at the play of the freshmen today and am very encouraged."
Â
Lehigh now remains home on Tuesday to host No. 12/13 Stony Brook at 7 p.m.
Like Lehigh men's lacrosse on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Â
Team Stats
NAVY
LEHIGH
Shots
50
28
Turnovers
10
9
Caused Turnovers
6
10
Faceoffs Won
16
6
Extra-Man Opps
5
3
Ground Balls
32
26
Game Leaders
Players
G
2
A
1
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
0
CT
0
G
2
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
3
CT
2
G
1
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
0
CT
0
G
1
A
2
FO
3-10
Pen
-
GB
5
CT
2
Players Mentioned
D
/ Men's LacrosseLSM
/ Men's Lacrosse
G
/ Men's Lacrosse
A/M
/ Men's LacrosseM/A
/ Men's Lacrosse
D
/ Men's LacrosseM
/ Men's Lacrosse
D
/ Men's LacrosseA
/ Men's LacrosseLehigh Sports Central: Men's Lacrosse
Thursday, April 24
2025 Season Preview: Men's Lacrosse
Friday, January 31
Lehigh Sports Central: Men's Lacrosse
Wednesday, April 10
