Bucknell University
Colgate
#11 Men's Lacrosse Team Clinches PL Crown With 10-5 Victory At Colgate
4/14/2001 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 14, 2001
HAMILTON, N.Y. -- Youthful offense with three goals
apiece from freshman attackman Wes Fetchet (New Canaan, Conn.)
and sophomore attackman Dennis Geraghty (Kings Park, N.Y.)
helped No. 11 Bucknell University clinch the Patriot League
men's lacrosse regular-season title with a 10-5 victory
against Colgate University Saturday afternoon at Tyler's
Field.
Bucknell, which is 5-0 heading into their final Patriot League
contest with Lehigh on April 28, clinched the regular-season
crown and an automatic berth into the NCAA Divison I men's
lacrosse tournament over current second-place Hobart which is
4-1. Even if Bucknell were to fall against Lehigh and end up
tied with Hobart (which has last-place Holy Cross remaining on
it schedule), the Bison would still win the title having
defeated Hobart 12-4 on March 31.
Despite the 10-5 final, Colgate put forth one of its strongest
efforts of the season battling to a 3-3 draw at the end of the
first half. Fetchet put Bucknell on the board first at 10:57
of the first quarter from Andrew Copelan (Pittsford, N.Y.) who
finished with three helpers on the afternoon.
Colgate answered right back with a goal from David Dobbins
(Webster, N.Y.) on a feed from Matt Cihon (Skaneateles, N.Y.)
at 9:49 of the first. Copelan gave Bucknell the lead once
again at 4:25 with an unassisted marker, but Colgate's Eamon
DePeter (Nyack, N.Y.) evened the score at 2-2 on a pass from
Parker Gibson (Newtown, Pa.) with just six ticks left on the
clock in the first quarter.
After withstanding a three-minute man-down defensive challenge
which was whistled on Dobbins for a stick under the legal
limit, Colgate took its only lead of the contest at the 9:25
mark of the second quarter with an unassisted goal by Ian
Franke (Duxbury, Mass.). However, the lead was short-lived
when just under a minute later Geraghty evened the game from
Michael Cheng (Floral Park, N.Y) and the two teams went to the
locker room tied at 3-3.
Bucknell's defensive unit was strong throughout the entire
contest limiting Colgate to just 16 total shots and just eight
of those shots were on goal. The Bison defense started to turn
up the intensity in the second half limiting Colgate to just
one shot on goal in the third and fourth quarters. While the
"D" was doing it's job, Bucknell's offense was
ignited scoring three goals in the third and four in the final
quarter.
Geraghty started a 5-0 run for the Bison with his second of
the game at 10:34 of the third from Copelan. Then Justin Slama
(Chestertown, Md.) added an unassisted goal to take a 6-4 lead
at the end of three. Fetchet continued the offensive charge
with his third goal of the afternoon from Kelly Hogue (Painted
Post, N.Y.) just seven seconds into the fourth quarter. Cheng
scored his first of two goals in the quarter to build the lead
to 8-4. Geraghty closed out the run with his third goal of the
day from Copelan at 8:47.
Cihon cut the lead to 9-5 with Colgate's only shot on goal of
the quarter with 3:52 remaining, but the comeback wasn't going
to happen against the strong Bucknell defense.
