April 6, 2010
Box Score
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The No. 16/20 Lafayette men's lacrosse team got back to its winning ways, its seventh victory of 2010, a 13-7 win over Marist on Tuesday evening in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Both squads started with strong statements from their respective defenses, with Lafayette senior goalkeeper Vinny DePasquale making a number of impressive saves in the opening minutes of the contest.
The Leopards (7-2) started the scoring with 4:36 remaining in the opening quarter when senior Chris Ahern tallied his 11th goal of the 2010 season.
After the Red Foxes answered with goals to end the first and begin the second quarter, junior Stefan Bauer joined Ahern with his 11th goal of the year at the 9:35 mark to tie the game at two.
Less than a minute later, Ryan Hansen generated a Tom Perini goal, as Lafayette regained the lead at 3-2 with 8:26 until intermission.
After Ryan Sharkey tied the game at three for Marist, the Lafayette man-down defense stood tall and ended a Red Fox opportunity with a Spencer Philpot caused turnover. The Leopard transition then went to work and Kevin Dunbar finished off a man-down goal with 51 seconds remaining in the half.
The Lafayette defense had four caused turnovers in the opening 30 minutes, paced by Philpot's two.
The Leopards controlled the game coming out of the locker room from intermission. Consecutive face-off wins from junior Cesar Munoz led the Leopard attack to two goals, one from Colin Serling and another from Dunbar, early in the third quarter to extend the Lafayette lead to 6-3.
Marist grabbed another man-up opportunity with five minutes remaining in the third quarter, but a DePasquale save and Philpot clear negated the opportunity.
Back-to-back goals from Steve Serling and Ahern, off a Brett Djaha assist, pushed the Lafayette lead to 8-3 with 2:48 remaining in the third quarter. Lafayette outscored the Red Foxes 4-0 in the quarter.
Marist capitalized on a man-up chance to open the final quarter, cutting the Leopard advantage to four (8-4).
Again, Lafayette answered, this time starting with a defensive clear. After a Perini groundball saved the Leopard possession, Colin Serling found Dunbar for his third goal of the game, bringing the Leopard lead back to five.
The see-saw battle watched a Red Fox goal with 8:30 left bring the Leopard advantage back to four (9-5). Another stand by the Lafayette defense, this time a caused turnover by Stewart Inman gave Lafayette possession with 5:40 remaining in the game. The Leopards capitalized, as a slash on Ryan Hansen forced a flag down inside the Lafayette attack. As play continued, Dunbar sent a skip pass across the field to find Matt Mersky for his first goal of the evening.
From there, Lafayette iced the remaining five minutes, capping off the Leopard scoring with goals from Steve Serling, Mersky and Dunbar's fourth goal of the evening to complete the 13-7 win.
DePasquale turned in one of his best performances of the season, racking up 13 saves on the evening.
Munoz turned in another solid evening on the "X", finishing 13-for-23 in face-offs. Lafayette was 19-for-21 in clears.
The Leopards won the groundball battle 35-26, including a 10-5 advantage in the decisive third quarter. Matt Beck paced the squad with six on the evening.
Lafayette will take the rest of the week to prepare for its return to Patriot League action. The Leopards travel to Holy Cross on Saturday. Face-off is set for 1 p.m. in Worcester, Mass.
NOTES:
With four regular season games still remaining, tonight's win surpasses last the 2009 win total.
In a growing theme throughout the season, Lafayette's balanced attack saw nine players record a point against Marist.
Lafayette is currently atop the Patriot League standings, tied with Army at 2-0. Check LSN All-Access on GoLeopards.com Wednesday afternoon for post-game coverage from Tuesday night's victory.
