EASTON, Pa. – The Lafayette men's lacrosse team opened the 2019 home season in style at Fisher Stadium on Saturday afternoon, using a career-high five goals from senior
Connar Dehnert en route to a 14-10 victory over NJIT. The win was the first as a head coach for Lafayette first-year man
Patrick Myers.
Following an opening eight minutes that saw the game knotted at 3-3, Lafayette took control with five straight goals to close out the opening frame and never looked back. The Leopards led by no less than three the rest of the way to improve to 1-1 on the season and drop the Highlanders to 0-2.
Dehnert's five tallies were unassisted twice and set up on three occasions by sophomore
Adam Close, senior co-captain
Conor Walters and senior
Luke Cummings. Freshman
Cole Dutton chipped in with a hat trick of his own, while sophomore
Andrew Robbins and Walters each found the back of the net twice.
Freshman
Ryan Ness picked up his first collegiate victory between the pipes with three saves, all coming in the second 30 minutes of action. NJIT's Alexzander Hunt suffered the loss despite a 10-save performance to move to 0-2 this season.
Defensively, junior
Chris Adamo led the way with three caused turnovers, while freshman
Stephen Sajer, junior
Zane Crandall and sophomore
Pat Tully each chipped in with a pair. Tully also picked up seven ground balls with Walters and Adamo adding three apiece.
The second quarter featured just one goal from either side as the game went to the break with Lafayette in control, 8-4. The Leopards added two more off the sticks of Dehnert and freshman
Ryan Kirkwood to start the third and move the lead to six, 10-4.
NJIT crept back with three of the next four to pull within 11-7 with 3:47 to play in the third quarter. The Leopards responded, though, as Dutton and Robbins went back-to-back to send the game to the final frame with a 13-7 advantage. The Highlanders added three of the five goals in the fourth, but it was too little, too late as Lafayette ran the clock out on a 14-10 victory.
The Maroon and White hit the road in their next contest, traveling to Staten Island, N.Y. for a meeting with Wagner on Friday at 4 p.m.
