April 17, 2010
Box Score
HAMILTON, N.Y. - The Lafayette men's lacrosse endured the highs and lows all in one evening, as the No. 17 Leopards fell to Colgate 14-9, but clinched the program's first-ever bid into the Patriot League tournament.
The Leopards (8-3, 3-1) earned a spot in the four-team tournament with Bucknell's victory over Lehigh. With two regular season games remaining, Lafayette can still claim any of the four seeds in the tournament.
It was the Leopards that jumped out to an early lead on Colgate's Senior night. Two Kevin Dunbar assists, the first to Colin Serling and the second to Stefan Bauer gave Lafayette an early 2-0 lead.
An unassisted goal from junior long-stick defenseman Jon Marcek stretched the lead to 3-0 with 8:37 remaining in the opening quarter. It was the first goal and point of Marcek's career.
Colgate answered with three goals to tie the game at three before the squads exchanged scores to cap off the first half scoring, with Lafayette's tally coming from Colin Serling's second of the evening, this time off an assist from senior Brett Djaha.
From there, the Raiders came out of halftime with a 4-0 run to take an 8-4 lead with 6:30 left in the third quarter. Lafayette responded with three goals of its own, as Dunbar, Tom Perini (Matt Mersky assist) and Cesar Munoz found the back of the net for the Leopards.
However, Colgate outscored Lafayette 6-2 in the final 15 minutes, taking the 14-9 win to capture a crucial game for the Raiders and its Patriot League tournament hopes.
Colin Serling paced the Leopards with three goals on the night, while Dunbar led Lafayette with three assists. Senior goalkeeper Vinny DePasquale notched 11 saves between the pipes for the Leopards.
Sophomore defenseman Paul Hammer had a team-leading three caused turnovers.
Lafayette will take a few days to regroup and prep for its final two home games of the year, ones that will certainly hold meaning as the Leopards will jockey for seeding in the tournament.
The Leopards will take on Army, who stands alone in first place going into tomorrow's showdown with Navy, on Tuesday night at state-of-the-art Fisher Stadium.
Fans who cannot make it to the game will be able to watch the game live on LSN All-Access. LSN's Dan Mowdy and Shawn Langen will have the call beginning at 6:55 p.m.
NOTES:
Fans wishing to watch the Lafayette men's lacrosse team take on archrival Lehigh from the Wolfe Family VIP suite in Fisher Stadium are encouraged to visit the GoLeopards.com Auctions on the front page of GoLeopards.com.
Colgate will now play Bucknell next Saturday (April 24) for the fourth and final spot in the Patriot League tournament.
With two regular season games remaining, stay tuned to GoLeopards.com for Patriot League tournament information and scenarios going into the final week of the regular season.
