Mountain Hawks pick up 13-12 win at Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Lehigh men's lacrosse team outscored Jacksonville 9-3 in the span of 37:27 bridging the first through fourth quarters, helping propel the Mountain Hawks to a 13-12 win over the Dolphins on Saturday afternoon. With the win, Lehigh improves to 2-0 for the first time since 2014. Sophomores Andrew Pettit and Tristan Rai each scored three goals while classmate Chris Kiernan was stellar between the pipes, making 12 saves, including stopping 7-of-10 during the Mountain Hawks' 9-3 run.

"It was a great game between two teams that battled it out," said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. "Jacksonville had tremendous energy in its first game of the year - its opener, with a new coaching staff and a new era for them. We stressed the first five minutes of the game were going to be huge for us. We scored the first one, which was big, then we were up 2-1 after the first five minutes."

Pettit recorded his first-career hat trick while Rai tallied his seventh. Rai added an assist for four points. Senior Matt Raposo also had a goal and career-high five assists, tying a career high with six points for the game.

"I'll give Pettit a lot of credit. It was a good team effort, but Pettit hadn't practiced all week," said Cassese. "He was out due to illness and practice got snowed out on Thursday. He ran around a little bit in our pregame last night. We were concerned about his ability to play in 80-degree heat, but he showed up, showed a lot of heart and ended up with some big time plays, not only scoring goals, but also with big groundballs and some tough, tough plays down the stretch."

Sophomore Craig Chick helped pace the defensive effort with six groundballs and three caused turnovers. Freshman Conor Gaffney won 12-of-24 faceoffs, collecting seven groundballs.

A high-scoring first quarter saw 10 combined goals and 23 combined shots. Lehigh held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before Jacksonville scored two straight to take a 3-2 advantage, its first lead of the game. Senior Ian Strain and freshman Andrew Eichelberger scored within a 23-second span to give Lehigh a 4-3 lead with 2:12 on the clock. The two-goal runs continued as Jacksonville eventually took a 5-4 lead with 21 seconds remaining in the first. However, Pettit scored his first goal of the game with four seconds on the clock, evening the score at five after 15 minutes of play.

The defenses began to stand tall in the second quarter as Lehigh extended its run to 3-0 behind the second goals of the game from both Rai and Pettit, giving the Mountain Hawks a 7-5 advantage with 5:16 left in the second quarter. Kiernan stood tall in the second, stopping four-of-five in the stanza. He was finally beaten with 48 seconds on the clock as Jacksonville pulled within 7-6 at the half.

Lehigh began the second half on a 3-0 run, extending its run to 6-1 since the end of the first quarter. The Mountain Hawks got goals from junior John Mehok, freshman Parker Kent and sophomore Lucas Spence to take a 10-6 lead with 3:51 remaining in the third quarter.

The Dolphins scored the next two to pull within 10-8 with 13:32 left in the fourth, but Lehigh's starting attackmen, Pettit, Raposo and Rai, responded with the next three goals, as the Mountain Hawks took a 13-8 advantage with 7:55 on the clock.

Jacksonville quickly cut into the deficit, scoring two goals over the next 36 seconds. The Dolphins added two more goals and had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but the Mountain Hawks' defense made a stop when it needed it most to hold onto the 13-12 victory.

"We started going to the penalty box and playing incredibly undisciplined at the end, but Jacksonville won some faceoffs, made some plays and had a chance to tie with 19 seconds left," said Cassese. "I give our defense a lot of credit. They stood tall at the end and were able to stay composed."

Lehigh finished with a 47-37 edge in shots while groundballs were tied at 35. Kiernan's 12 saves came across Jacksonville's Ben Gleichenhaus, who made 14 stops.

"Chris was huge today," said Cassese. "He was really calm, cool and collected in the cage and he was seeing the ball really well. Both goaltenders had outstanding days. There were a lot of shots in the game; when you're seeing 80 plus shots, you're going to need your goaltenders to stand tall and I thought both did a good job."

The Mountain Hawks return to action next Saturday when they play at defending National Champion North Carolina at 1 p.m.

"We have to continue to progress," said Cassese. "We have a long way to go. It's still a very young team. We have to keep getting our young guys experience and continue to learn. It's going to be another big learning experience against North Carolina. We'll have to be a whole lot better than we were in the first two games in order to have a chance to compete next Saturday."

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Mountain Hawks pick up 13-12 win at Jacksonville

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Players Mentioned

Craig Chick

Andrew Eichelberger

Conor Gaffney

Parker Kent

Chris Kiernan

John Mehok

Andrew Pettit

Tristan Rai

Matt Raposo

Lucas Spence

Ian Strain

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