Friday, April 22
Lewisburg, Pa.
7:00 pm
Lehigh University
9-4, 5-3PL
7
at
15
Bucknell
6-8, 4-4PL
1
2
3
4
F
Lehigh
1
2
2
2
7
Bucknell
5
2
3
5
15
Mountain Hawks fall in regular season finale at Bucknell
4/22/2016 10:33:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
LEWISBURG, Pa. - After falling into an early hole, the Lehigh men's lacrosse team twice pulled within three in the third quarter, but couldn't get any closer as the Bison scored seven of the final nine goals to win, 15-7 on Friday evening. With the loss, the Mountain Hawks fall to 6-8 overall and 4-4 in league play. Lehigh will enter the Patriot League Tournament as the No. 5 seed and head to No. 4 Army West Point for the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Â
"I saw a tough start and a bad finish," said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. "I thought Bucknell carried the pace of play early. We talked a lot about how we get a fast start. We didn't execute in our faceoff game our or ride game early. They had a lot of possessions and made us pay. That was tough to overcome. Even still, I thought our guys battled back in the second quarter and a little bit in the third quarter."
Â
Freshman Tristan Rai tallied a team-high three points for the Mountain Hawks behind a goal and career-high tying two assists. Senior Alex Eaton scored twice while senior Ray Mastroianni, junior Ian Strain and freshmen Andrew Pettit and Zach Drake scored Lehigh's other goals. Drake's tally marked the first of his career, coming in his first collegiate game.
Â
Strain opened the scoring at 10:14 of the first quarter to give Lehigh a 1-0 lead, but Bucknell responded with a 5-0 run to take a 5-1 lead after one quarter of play.
Â
Bucknell's lead reached five early in the second quarter, but the Mountain Hawks bounced back to scored two of the final three first-half goals. Mastroianni pulled Lehigh within 6-2 then Pettit scored on the man advantage to make the score 7-3 with 6:02 remaining in the quarter.
Â
Eaton quickly scored less than a minute into the third quarter to pull Lehigh within 7-4, then after a Bucknell goal, Rai scored on the man advantage to pull the Mountain Hawks back within three at 8-5 with 8:30 still left in the third. Lehigh had opportunities to cut into the deficit even more, but was unable to beat Bucknell goaltender Christian Klipstein.
Â
"We just couldn't quite cut it to a two-goal deficit," said Cassese. "I felt like it would have been a much different game if we did. Credit to Bucknell. They wouldn't let us get it to two and they kept the pressure on."
Â
The Bison scored twice in the final minute of the third quarter then outscored the Mountain Hawks 5-2 in the fourth to finish the 15-7 win.
Â
Final shots were 46-25 in favor of Bucknell while the Bison held a 35-20 edge in groundballs and won 24-of-26 faceoffs. Freshman Chris Kiernan made 13 saves before being replaced by sophomore Adam Sawicki, who made three.
Â
"I was disappointed. I saw some quit in our guys in the third and fourth quarters that I hadn't seen before, and I was really disappointed to see that," said Cassese. "I'm not okay with that. It's something we'll have to address. The truth of the matter is, we have another game. I'll be interested to see how our guys decide to show up for that extra game. If they play like they did down the stretch tonight, our season will be done on Tuesday. But if they play like they did in parts of the second and third quarter, we'll have a shot."
Â
Lehigh now looks ahead to Tuesday's Patriot League Quarterfinal matchup at Army West Point. Opening faceoff is set for 4 p.m.
Â
"They're excellent. At the end of the day, we're going to have to play a whole lot better if we hope to compete," said Cassese.
Â
Like Lehigh men's lacrosse on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Â
Team Stats
LEHIGH
BUCKNELL
Shots
25
46
Turnovers
7
9
Caused Turnovers
6
5
Faceoffs Won
2
24
Extra-Man Opps
3
2
Ground Balls
20
35
Game Leaders
G
2
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
1
CT
0
G
1
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
4
CT
1
G
1
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
0
CT
0
G
1
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
2
CT
1
Players Mentioned
M
/ Men's LacrosseM
/ Men's Lacrosse
G
/ Men's LacrosseM
/ Men's LacrosseA/M
/ Men's Lacrosse
A
/ Men's Lacrosse
G
/ Men's LacrosseM
/ 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
