Saturday, April 8
Baltimore, Md.
1 PM
Lehigh University
5-5, 3-4PL
5
at
14
Loyola
7-4, 5-1PL
1
2
3
4
F
Lehigh
2
0
0
3
5
Loyola Maryland
2
5
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14
No. 19 Loyola surges past Mountain Hawks, 14-5
4/8/2017 3:44:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
BALTIMORE - The Lehigh men's lacrosse team jumped out to a 2-1 lead, but Loyola answered in a big way, using a dominant edge in possessions to beat the Mountain Hawks (5-5, 3-4 Patriot League) 14-5 on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore. Loyola used a 10-1 run to take control. Senior Ian Strain led Lehigh's offense with two goals while senior Donny Stires and sophomore Chris Kiernan combined to make 17 saves.
Stires was strong for a second straight week, making 10 saves over the first three quarters before Kiernan stopped seven-of-ten shots sent his way in the fourth. Lehigh won just six of 22 faceoffs, three of them coming in the fourth quarter. Sophomore Matt Ernst finished 4-of-7 from the dot.
"This was a tough one for us," said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. "Without Conor (Gaffney) playing, we knew it was going to be a challenge, just to try and win the possession battle. I thought we did a good job of it in the first quarter, but obviously, it got away from us in the second. When you're losing the possession battle, you need to play near flawlessly and we didn't do that today. A lot of credit goes to Loyola. Graham Savio was excellent at the faceoff dot. They beat us to a ton of groundballs and that was really the difference in the game."
Loyola opened the scoring, but two straight Lehigh goals, from Strain and sophomore Tristan Rai, gave the Mountain Hawks a 2-1 advantage with 9:21 remaining in the first quarter.
The Greyhounds pulled even after one quarter of play, and outscored Lehigh 5-0 in the second. Two goals in the final 25 seconds turned a 5-2 lead into a 7-2 advantage at the half.
Loyola held a 4-0 edge in the third quarter before sophomore Mickey Fitzpatrick snapped Lehigh's 41:15 scoreless drought with 13:07 remaining in the fourth. Strain and senior Anthony Ramaizel went on to score goals as well.
Final shots were 45-19 in favor of Loyola while the Greyhounds held a 38-16 edge in groundballs.
"We have to learn there's a lot of different ways to win a game," said Cassese. "We're used to Conor getting us a lot of possessions. Sometimes, that's not going to happen and we have to figure out some other ways to get possession, play smarter and better. It's tough, especially against a great team like that. They were motivated today, they played well they played hard. They got some timely stops. They played a lot of offense and were able to figure out our defense today.
The Mountain Hawks will return home on Tuesday (Apr. 11) to host No. 13/15 Princeton at 7 p.m.
Like Lehigh men's lacrosse on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
LEHIGH
LOYOLA
Shots
19
45
Turnovers
14
10
Caused Turnovers
5
11
Faceoffs Won
6
16
Extra-Man Opps
0
3
Ground Balls
16
38
Game Leaders
G
2
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
1
CT
0
G
1
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
0
CT
0
G
1
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
0
CT
0
G
1
A
1
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
1
CT
1
Players Mentioned
FO/M
/ Men's LacrosseA/M
/ Men's Lacrosse
G
/ Men's LacrosseA
/ Men's LacrosseM
/ Men's Lacrosse
G
/ Men's LacrosseM
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