Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell's Chris Cara Named PL Men's Lax Player of the Week
4/26/2004 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 26, 2004
LEWISBURG, Pa. - After carrying the Bucknell offense on his back in the men's lacrosse team's critical 6-5 win over Colgate on Saturday, junior attack Chris Cara (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) has been named the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks. Cara, the nation's scoring leader, had a hand in five of the six goals against Colgate as Bucknell secured a berth in the first-ever Patriot League Men's Lacrosse Tournament.
Bucknell has won outright or shared each of the last four Patriot League titles, but a new tournament format has been installed in 2004, and the Bison were in danger of missing out on the postseason until the final horn sounded on Saturday at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
After Colgate rallied from a 5-2 halftime deficit to draw even at 5-all in the fourth quarter, it was Cara who scored the game-winner with 5:39 to play, ending a 29-minute scoring drought for the Bison. The all-star forward finished the day with four goals and one assist, upping his season point total to 74 on 36 goals and 38 assists. Syracuse star Michael Powell is second in the nation in scoring, 17 points behind Cara.
Cara, who also had a hat trick in Bucknell's 12-7 loss at Penn State last Tuesday, broke the Bucknell single-season assist mark with his helper on John Salvesen's goal against Colgate. His 38th assist of the season is one more than Pete Von Hoffmann's record, set in both 1977 and 1979. Cara is one of only five players in school history to record 30 or more assists in a season, and he has done it in each of his first three seasons at Bucknell.
Cara's assist against Army was the 99th of his career. One more and he will become the second player in BU history and third in PL history to reach the 100-assist plateau. Cara moved into a tie for third place with Jon Romm (1987-90) on Bucknell's career scoring list with 179 points. That is fifth in PL annals.
Despite not qualifying for the Patriot League Tournament until the final day of the regular season, Bucknell (6-7, 4-3 PL) did manage to move up to the No. 3 seed and will face No. 2 Hobart in one semifinal game on Friday at 3 p.m. Top seed and tournament host Navy will face fourth-seeded Colgate at noon, with the winners playing for the championship at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
