April 3, 2010
Box Score
EASTON, Pa. - For the second consecutive game, the Lafayette men's lacrosse team played from behind nearly the entire contest, this time seeing its comeback fall short to Mount St. Mary's 14-12 on Saturday afternoon.
The Leopards (6-2), ranked No. 10/13 coming into the game, fell behind 3-0 early in the first quarter, before a Steve Serling goal at 10:39 put Lafayette on the scoreboard.
The teams exchanged goals for the remainder of the first quarter, with Serling tallying his second goal of the day and a goal with 1:11 left in the opening quarter from his fellow senior co-captain Matt Mersky.
After Serling completed his first half hat trick, the Mount pushed its lead back to three (7-4) with 10:10 left in the half. From there, Lafayette made its run.
A goal from junior Tom Perini, followed by Serling's fourth of the afternoon and a man-advantage tally from Tyler Silvey pulled the Leopards even at halftime (7-7) and riding its momentum.
The Mountaineers answered to start the second half less than three minutes in before senior Chris Ahern took a Stefan Bauer pass to tie the game at eight.
Following a 3-0 Mount St. Mary's run, Greg Allis trimmed the Mount lead back to two (11-9) on an unassisted goal with 4:15 remaining in the third quarter.
Mount St. Mary's again had an answer before the Leopards finally got back-to-back goals from Perini and Silvey's second man-up goal of the afternoon to get back within one (12-11) with 8:32 remaining.
Lafayette squandered opportunities down the stretch and the Mountaineers (5-2) maintained possession for the majority of the final eight minutes, scoring two more times with Serling's fifth and final goal of the day Lafayette's only response.
The Leopards did everything except put more goals on the scoreboard. Lafayette outshot the Mount 42-31, led in the groundballs category (38-32) and finished with 18 face-off wins to the Mount's 13.
Senior goalkeeper Vinny DePasquale again notched double digit saves for the Leopards, finishing with 10 on the afternoon. The Leopards forced Mount St. Mary's to make 18 saves on its 42 shots.
The Leopards will need to regroup quickly, as they travel to Marist on Tuesday for their final non-conference game of 2010. Face-off is set for 7 p.m. in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
NOTES:
Two milestones were achieved on Saturday afternoon. Perini's first goal of the afternoon was the 100th point of his career while Mersky's first quarter goal was the senior co-captain's 100th point of his stellar four years at Lafayette.
DePasquale has tallied double digit saves in seven of Lafayette's eight contests this year.
Mount St. Mary's has now won five straight games since opening the season 0-2.
