Feb. 27, 2010
Box Score
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - The Lafayette men's lacrosse team jumped out to a quick start for the second straight game and moved their record to 2-0, the first time since 1997, with a 12-9 victory over Binghamton.
Lafayette seized control of the game early, using the first 11 minutes of the contest to leap out to a 5-0 lead.
Junior Tom Perini jumped out opened the Leopard scoring off an assist from sophomore Colin Serling. Perini's goal was followed by a tally from co-captain Matt Mersky from Kevin Dunbar at the 11:31 mark of the first quarter. Dunbar then struck with a goal of his own off a pass from junior Stefan Bauer and the Leopards led 3-0.
The Leopards continued to pressure the Bearcat defense and followed up with two more goals in a span of six minutes, one from Stewart Inman, the other Perini's second goal of the day and the Leopards spotted themselves a 5-0 lead with 4:13 left in the opening quarter.
After Binghamton got on the board, Lafayette answered with four straight goals to cap off the first 15 minutes and control the second quarter.
Unassisted goals from Mersky and Djaha, followed by Bauer's second assist of the afternoon to Mersky and Anthony Zawadzki's first collegiate goal gave the Leopards a 9-1 advantage with 2:44 remaining in the half.
Just as the Leopards controlled the second quarter, Binghamton responded with 15 minutes of their own in the third quarter, outscoring the Leopards 5-1 after halftime with the lone Lafayette goal coming from Perini off a Steve Serling assist at 8:58 of the quarter.
The Bearcats continued to mount their comeback, opening the final period with two goals, one on the man-advantage to cut the Lafayette lead to 10-9 with nine minutes left.
However, Lafayette turned to the Serling brothers to ice the game, as senior co-captain Steve Serling gave the Leopards an insurance goal at 7:59 off a Dunbar assist and Colin Serling iced the game on a man-advantage goal with 17 seconds left to give the Leopards a 12-9 victory.
Perini and Mersky each led Lafayette with three goals apiece, while Dunbar had a game-high four points.
Senior goalkeeper Vinny DePasquale turned in his second consecutive strong performance in goal, racking up 15 saves on the afternoon.
The Leopards forced Binghamton into 21 turnovers to just 15 for Lafayette.
Lafayette now turns its focus to the 2010 home-opener on Wednesday night. The Leopards host Penn with face-off scheduled for 7 p.m. from Rappolt Field.
