Saturday, March 9
Bethlehem, Pa.
3:30 PM
Lehigh University
3-3, 1-0PL
12
vs
10
Navy
3-3, 1-1PL
1
2
3
4
F
NAVY
3
0
4
3
10
Lehigh
1
3
4
4
12
Lehigh Opens Up Patriot League Play with 12-10 Win over Navy
3/9/2024 6:48:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lehigh men's lacrosse captured a 12-10 victory over Navy on Saturday afternoon at the Ulrich Sports Complex to open up Patriot League play with a win. The Mountain Hawks (3-3 1-0 PL) bounced back after suffering a 14-8 loss to Villanova in the home opener on March 2.Â
"I'm really proud of the guys," said head coach Will Scudder. "We talked about this being a full team effort and needing everybody to play with love for one another, to have attention to detail and to do their job, and I felt the guys really committed to this."Â
Lehigh also knocked off a Midshipmen team that was coming in with a lot of momentum as they opened up league play last week with a 16-9 victory over Boston University. Navy is now 3-3 (1-1 PL). The Mountain Hawks have also won the last seven meetings, which is the longest Lehigh winning streak in the series since the two teams first met in 1910.Â
Lehigh's 12 goals were scored by seven different players. Andrew Kelly tied his career-high of four goals, and Grant Rodny scored the first hat trick of his career. Quinn Armstrong, Scott Cole, Dakota Eierman, Brian Mullen and Hunter Polonkey all netted one goal apiece.
"When you have a player like Scott Cole that's going to demand so much attention from the other teams, you need other guys to take advantage of the opportunities," Scudder said.Â
Kelly opened up the scoring with 11:23 remaining, and Navy would go on to score the next three goals.Â
"We talked about needing to commit to the process, and to commit to the game plan," Scudder said. "Two of their three goals were kind of just by chance with the bounce of the ball, and I felt like the guys did what we asked of them."Â
The Mountain Hawks immediately answered with a 3-0 run of their own to go back up 4-3 with 1:14 remaining in the second quarter, and they would never lose their lead for the remainder of the game.Â
Polonkey scored his first career goal with 6:13 remaining in the third quarter to put Lehigh up by three goals, and that would be tied for the largest lead of the game for the Mountain Hawks, but Navy started to chip away at its deficit and tied the game twice. Mac Haley evened things at 10 with 5:22 remaining, but Lehigh's senior leaders stepped up big as Armstrong and Cole netted the final two goals of the game to ice the win for Lehigh.
Sophomore defender Luke McAuliffe held Navy leading scorer Xavier Airline off the scoreboard Airline came into the game with 15 points (10G, 5A) before today's contest and was held to just three shots.Â
Senior goalkeeper Nick Pecora tied his career-high of 16 saves, which he also recorded against Navy last season. Pecora finished the day with a 61.5% save percentage. Dan Daly was credited with 10 saves for the Midshipmen.
Lehigh was 12-of-25 at the stripe on Saturday. Senior faceoff specialist Matt Brock was 4-of-8 and junior faceoff specialist Sean Dow was 8-of-17.Â
The Mountain Hawks forced 15 turnovers from Navy. Sophomore defender Richard Checo tallied a game-high of three caused turnovers and a season-high of five ground balls. Cole also had two caused turnovers.Â
The Mountain Hawks will look to carry their momentum into next week as they take on Army West Point in West Point, N.Y. on March 16 at 1 p.m.
"I'm really proud of the guys," said head coach Will Scudder. "We talked about this being a full team effort and needing everybody to play with love for one another, to have attention to detail and to do their job, and I felt the guys really committed to this."Â
Lehigh also knocked off a Midshipmen team that was coming in with a lot of momentum as they opened up league play last week with a 16-9 victory over Boston University. Navy is now 3-3 (1-1 PL). The Mountain Hawks have also won the last seven meetings, which is the longest Lehigh winning streak in the series since the two teams first met in 1910.Â
Lehigh's 12 goals were scored by seven different players. Andrew Kelly tied his career-high of four goals, and Grant Rodny scored the first hat trick of his career. Quinn Armstrong, Scott Cole, Dakota Eierman, Brian Mullen and Hunter Polonkey all netted one goal apiece.
"When you have a player like Scott Cole that's going to demand so much attention from the other teams, you need other guys to take advantage of the opportunities," Scudder said.Â
Kelly opened up the scoring with 11:23 remaining, and Navy would go on to score the next three goals.Â
"We talked about needing to commit to the process, and to commit to the game plan," Scudder said. "Two of their three goals were kind of just by chance with the bounce of the ball, and I felt like the guys did what we asked of them."Â
The Mountain Hawks immediately answered with a 3-0 run of their own to go back up 4-3 with 1:14 remaining in the second quarter, and they would never lose their lead for the remainder of the game.Â
Polonkey scored his first career goal with 6:13 remaining in the third quarter to put Lehigh up by three goals, and that would be tied for the largest lead of the game for the Mountain Hawks, but Navy started to chip away at its deficit and tied the game twice. Mac Haley evened things at 10 with 5:22 remaining, but Lehigh's senior leaders stepped up big as Armstrong and Cole netted the final two goals of the game to ice the win for Lehigh.
Sophomore defender Luke McAuliffe held Navy leading scorer Xavier Airline off the scoreboard Airline came into the game with 15 points (10G, 5A) before today's contest and was held to just three shots.Â
Senior goalkeeper Nick Pecora tied his career-high of 16 saves, which he also recorded against Navy last season. Pecora finished the day with a 61.5% save percentage. Dan Daly was credited with 10 saves for the Midshipmen.
Lehigh was 12-of-25 at the stripe on Saturday. Senior faceoff specialist Matt Brock was 4-of-8 and junior faceoff specialist Sean Dow was 8-of-17.Â
The Mountain Hawks forced 15 turnovers from Navy. Sophomore defender Richard Checo tallied a game-high of three caused turnovers and a season-high of five ground balls. Cole also had two caused turnovers.Â
The Mountain Hawks will look to carry their momentum into next week as they take on Army West Point in West Point, N.Y. on March 16 at 1 p.m.
Team Stats
NAVY
LEHIGH
Shots
40
33
Turnovers
15
13
Caused Turnovers
4
7
Faceoffs Won
13
12
Extra-Man Opps
4
1
Ground Balls
26
25
Game Leaders
G
4
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
0
CT
0
G
3
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
0
CT
0
G
1
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
1
CT
1
G
1
A
0
FO
-
Pen
-
GB
1
CT
0
Players Mentioned
A/M
/ Men's Lacrosse
FO/M
/ Men's Lacrosse
D
/ Men's Lacrosse
A/M
/ Men's Lacrosse
M
/ Men's LacrosseA
/ Men's Lacrosse
D
/ Men's Lacrosse
M
/ Men's Lacrosse
G
/ Men's Lacrosse
A
/ Men's LacrosseA
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