Lehigh Survives Late Push From Fairfield, Picks up first Win of the Season

Saturday, February 10

Fairfield, Conn.

12:00 PM

Lehigh University

1-1

Fairfield University

0-1

Lehigh

Fairfield

Lehigh Survives Late Push From Fairfield, Picks up first Win of the Season

2/10/2024 6:52:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - The Lehigh men's lacrosse team survived a late push from Fairfield, pulling away with a 8-7 victory Saturday afternoon at Rafferty Stadium.

'I'm proud of our guys today," said head coach Will Scudder. "It wasn't always clean, but we went up to Fairfield looking for a win, and we came away with one."

Saturday's win marked the first win for the Mountain Hawks as they moved to 1-1 on the season, and it also was the first win Scudder as a head coach.

The Stags dropped to 0-1 on the season.

Junior attackman Dakota Eierman scored the eventual game-winning goal for the Mountain Hawks with 2:05 remaining to put Lehigh up 8-5, but Fairfield would go on to score two goals in less than 40 seconds to cut Lehigh's deficit to one with 44 seconds remaining in the game.

Sean Dow, who was 12-of-18 from the stripe on Saturday, won the biggest faceoff of his career with 44 seconds remaining to keep the possession with the Mountain Hawks. All Lehigh had to do was keep the Stags scoreless for the final 44 seconds, and the Mountain Hawks did just that. In addition to winning a career-high of 12 faceoffs, Dow also picked up eight ground balls.

"I thought we controlled the tempo of the game for the first three quarters," Scudder said. "Unfortunately, in the fourth quarter, we lacked discipline and let the game get away from us. However, we made enough plays earlier in the game to come away with a win."

Senior goalie Nick Pecora stood on his head on Saturday as finished with 13 saves, which is just one save shy of his career-high. Pecora also recorded the 200th save of his career. He currently has 206 saves.

The first quarter would be a defensive battle as Scott Cole scored the first and only goal for the Mountain Hawks with 10 seconds left in the opening frame.

Jake Gilbert evened things at one just 30 seconds into the second quarter, but the Mountain Hawks would go on to dominate the second quarter, ending the half on a 5-0 run to take a 6-1 lead.

The third frame was another defensive battle, with Luke Okupski scoring the lone goal with three seconds left to cut Lehigh's lead to 6-2.

The Stags outscored the Mountain Hawks 5-2 in the fourth frame, but Lehigh's four-goal lead would be enough to hold onto the lead.

Cole and Andrew Kelly both had a team-high of two goals, while EJ Vasille, Grant Rodny and Brian Mullen all netted one. Mullen's goal, which he netted in the second quarter, was also his first collegiate goal.

Lehigh had 21 turnovers to Fairfield's 15. Richard Checo netted a team-high of three caused turnovers. Will Lyman, Kellen Mathias, Luke McAuliffe, Jack Thistle and Nick Turrini all recorded a caused turnover.

Will Consoli led the way for the Stags with four points (3G, 1A).Will Snyder tallied seven saves for Fairfield.

"I was proud of our underclassmen (Sean Dow, Andrew Kelly and Luke McAuliffe) who have stepped into new roles and are starting to settle into them," Scudder said. "I appreciate the leadership from our seniors to settle the team down in the closing minutes of the game. I am excited to correct our mistakes from today and move forward to Cornell."

The Mountain Hawks will be back in action at Cornell on Feb. 17. Opening faceoff is set for 3:30 p.m. with broadcast coverage on ESPN+.