April 14, 2009
WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Lafayette men's lacrosse team controlled the first 45 minutes of Tuesday night's Patriot League contest with Army. However, the Leopards were outscored 8-3 in the final quarter, as Army walked away with a dramatic 12-10 victory.
It was the Lafayette man-up offense that set the tone in the first quarter, as the Leopards scored on two of three first quarter man-advantage opportunities. Sophomore Tom Perini tallied both goals, the first coming at the 10:39 mark off an assist from Doug Prusoff.
Perini gave Lafayette a 2-0 lead with 4:53 remaining in the quarter off an assist from Tyler Silvey.
After the Black Knights made the score 2-1, the Leopards responded with two goals in the final minute of the opening quarter, as Perini capped off his first quarter hat trick with an unassisted goal. Lafayette's first quarter scoring wasn't quite done, as junior Matt Mersky used a pass from Colin Serling to find the back of the net with one second remaining in the quarter.
Taking a 4-1 lead into the second frame, Lafayette continued to open up its lead. Unassisted goals from Greg Allis and Mersky gave the Leopards a 6-1 advantage with 7:28 remaining until halftime.
Army cut the Lafayette lead to three with two goals to close out the half, as the Leopards took a 6-3 advantage into intermission.
Lafayette kept Army at arm's length, opening the second half with two even-strength goals. Mersky notched his third goal of the day before Ryan Hansen used an Allis assist to stretch the lead back to five (8-3) with just over three minutes into the quarter.
Two Black Knight goals from Jeremy Boltus cut the lead back to three. However, Lafayette closed out the third quarter scoring with an unassisted tally from Brett Djaha and opened the final 15 minutes with a Silvey goal off Colin Serling's second assist of the evening, giving the Leopards a 10-5 lead with 13:44 left.
From that point, the game was controlled by Army. Seven unanswered goals, all at even-strength between the 10:44 and 4:50 marks of the final quarter gave the Black Knights a 12-10 lead.
Lafayette regrouped, as Mersky grabbed his fourth and final goal of the night to cut the lead back to 12-11. Army notched an insurance tally with 1:35 remaining. The goal turned out to be crucial, as Kevin Dunbar found Djaha to pull the Leopards back to within one with 18 seconds remaining.
However, Djaha's goal turned out to be the final goal of the game, as Army held off Lafayette for the dramatic 13-12 victory.
Leopard senior goalkeeper Jeff Canfield had 14 saves on the evening. Lafayette won 15-of-28 face-offs and were 3-for-5 on man-advantage opportunities. Boltus finished with three goals and four assists to lead Army.
Lafayette will now shift its focus to a Saturday night showdown with archrival Lehigh. A Leopard victory by more than one goal would give Lafayette the fourth and final spot in the Patriot League tournament. Face-off is set for 7 p.m. in Bethlehem, Pa.
A one-goal Leopard win would force a three-way tie between Lafayette, Lehigh and Army for the final seed. At that point, Army would be awarded the final spot thanks to goal differential against the remainder of the Patriot League opponents.
