April 18, 2009
Box Score
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Lafayette men's lacrosse team traveled to Bethlehem, Pa. on Saturday evening with two objectives, the first to defeat archrival Lehigh and if the opportunity presented itself, win by two goals or more and capture the first Patriot League Tournament berth in school history. The Leopards led wire-to-wire en route to an impressive 9-8 statement victory, but will miss out on the postseason to a tiebreaker with Army.
It was Lafayette's game from start to finish, as the Leopards took the opening face-off and forced a man-advantage opportunity. Just 50 seconds into the game senior John Galassi took a Matt Mersky pass to find the back of the net and give the Leopards a 1-0 lead.
While the Lafayette defense was having a stellar, shutdown first quarter, the Leopard offense came alive again at the 4:28 mark, as this time Mersky took things into his own hands and tallied an unassisted goal to put Lafayette up 2-0. Three minutes later, sophomore Tom Perini took a Kevin Dunbar assist and the Leopards surged ahead 3-0.
Lafayette closed out the first quarter with Mersky's second goal of the day, another man-advantage goal with 24 seconds remaining and the Leopards led 4-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The change of periods didn't slow the Leopards down. After sophomore Cesar Munoz won the face-off, he took the ball into the Lehigh defense and found Stefen Bauer for an even-strength goal just seven seconds into the second frame.
After Lehigh finally got on the board with two goals, Mersky capped off his first half hat trick with another unassisted goal to stretch the Leopard advantage back to four (6-2).
Less than three minutes later, Perini notched his team-leading 39th goal of the season give Lafayette a 7-2 lead. The Mountain Hawks tallied a goal at the end of the half to cut its deficit to 7-3 at intermission.
Following a Lehigh goal to open to the second half scoring, a pair of Leopard freshmen teamed up when Colin Serling found Greg Allis for his third goal of the season and lengthened the Lafayette lead back to four (8-4).
From there, Lehigh made its push. Three straight unanswered goals, two even-strength and one man-advantage, between the 8:37 mark of the third quarter and 5:28 of the final quarter pulled the Mountain Hawks to within one (8-7).
However, Lafayette had its answer. After a Lehigh penalty, Bauer found Tyler Silvey for a crucial goal with 4:30 left to give the Leopards a 9-7 lead. Silvey's insurance goal turned out to be much-needed, as the Mountain Hawks responded with a goal at the 3:50 mark to cut it back to one (9-8).
From there, the Lafayette defense didn't bend or break, as senior goalkeeper Jeff Canfield ended his night of clutch saves with two more in the final minutes.
Leading by one with time running down and the Leopards knowing the situation, head coach Terry Mangan called a timeout to set up a final play with seven seconds remaining. An inbounds pass from the Leopard defensive half of the midfield was heaved and somehow found the stick of Perini, but as he came down with the ball, it was jarred loose by two Lehigh defenders to end the hopes of a Leopard postseason berth.
Mangan talked about how proud he was of his squad after the 9-8 victory.
"It was a great game. Tonight, the first goal was to beat Lehigh. We all wish we had found another goal in there somewhere to qualify for the tournament, but we're coming home with a big win over Lehigh, which is certainly key and something our guys will never forget. I'm so proud of our guys, they played hard and were tough all night. The senior class was great tonight as they have been all year. They really turned our team around and I can't say enough good things about them."
The Leopards outshot Lehigh 40-39 and won the ground ball battle 38-36. Lafayette was 4-for-8 in man-advantage opportunities and committed only 15 turnovers to Lehigh's 19.
The Lafayette defense was stellar all night, led by Canfield's 11 saves in goal, capping off a remarkable Leopard career.
Senior defenders Alex Heller and Matt Mozer were active all night, with the two-year co-captain Heller causing three turnovers and Mozer grabbing a team-high eight ground balls. Also highlighted was the play of sophomore defender Spencer Philpot, who shadowed Lehigh leading-scorer Ricky Cornetta, only allowing him one goal on the evening.
Lafayette ends its 2009 season 6-7 overall and 2-4 in the Patriot League. The six wins are the most since 2001 and the Leopards finish tied for fourth in the final regular season Patriot League standings.
Game Notes:
With the 9-8 win, Lafayette, Army and Lehigh finish in a three-way tie for the fourth and final playoff spot in next weekend's Patriot League Tournament. Army wins the tiebreaker due to goal differential between the remainder of league opponents and will face top-seeded Bucknell next weekend.
Canfield leaves Lafayette ranked third all-time in career saves with 570 saves.
Perini had at least one goal in all of Lafayette's 13 contests this season.
With the win, Lafayette snapped a eight-game losing skid to Lehigh.
The game's listed attendance was 1,552, which included a large contingent of Lafayette faithful and students who made the short trek to Bethlehem.
