Bucknell University
Mount St. Mary's
Bucknell Men's Lax Pulls Away from Mount St. Mary's, 17-11
4/16/2005 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 16, 2005
EMMITSBURG, Md. - Bucknell's top three scorers - Chris Cara, Kirk Klett and Patrick Christensen - combined for 11 goals as the 12th-ranked Bison set a season scoring high in a 17-11 non-conference victory over Mount St. Mary's on a sunny Saturday. The victory upped Bucknell record to 7-3, while The Mount fell to 5-6.
Cara, who entered the game ranked second in the nation in scoring, tallied two goals and five assists, while Christensen scored five goals and Klett four. Nick Marks scored twice for the Bison, who outshot Mount St. Mary's 50-27. John Schlicher scored the first two goals of his career, while rookie Steven Cheng also hit the net for the first time.
Matt Warner and Billy Jautze each scored three times for The Mount, while Jason Werner had four assists.
The Bison trailed 3-2 after the opening period, then dominated the middle 30 minutes of the game, outscoring The Mount 12-3 over that span. Cara and Christensen scored early in the second period to give the Bison the lead back at 4-3, then Klett scored twice in 30 seconds for a 6-3 lead.
Jautze and Eric Seifert scored back-to-back to pull Mount St. Mary's within 6-5 with 2:57 left in the half, but Schlicher scored his first career goal with 1:56 left in the period and Christensen finished a Cara feed with 20 seconds left for an 8-5 halftime lead.
Warner opened the second-half scoring for The Mount, but then the Bison blew it open with six goals in a row. Steve Case scored off an assist from John Salvesen at the midway point of the third quarter to start the run, then Cara, Klett, Christensen and Marks all scored in a four-minute span. Christensen finished the surge with 19 seconds left in the third, giving the Bison a commanding 14-6 lead.
Mount St. Mary's outscored Bucknell 5-3 in the fourth, with the host's final three goals coming with a man advantage.
Matt Baran made 10 saves while allowing nine goals before yielding to Mark Davis for the final 7:33. Davis made one save and allowed two EMO goals in the final seconds. Dan Whitehurst went the distance for The Mount and stopped 10 shots.
Mount St. Mary's won the ground ball battle 36-30 and controlled 18 of the 32 faceoffs. Bucknell was outstanding in transition, completing 19 of 23 clears, including 12 of 13 in the second half.
With seven points on Saturday, Cara became the first Bucknell player ever to record 50 points in a season three times. He pulled within four of the Patriot League career record. Cara now has 234 career points, just behind the 238 posted by Army's Tim Pearson from 1999-2002. Cara also upped his career assist total to 129, which is nine shy of Pete von Hoffmann's Bucknell record and 13 behind Pearson's Patriot League mark.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Navy defeated arch-rival Army 12-9 in Annapolis, Md., which puts the Midshipmen in the driver's seat for the No. 1 seed at the Patriot League Tournament. Navy has completed its league slate at 5-1, while Bucknell and Army are 4-1 with a game left to play. Bucknell could still win the regular season title and host the tournament with a victory over Colgate next Saturday and an Army loss to Holy Cross on Tuesday. The Crusaders are 3-8 this season and 0-14 all-time against Army, however.
If both Army and Bucknell win their final league contests to create a three-way tie at 5-1, Navy would claim the No. 1 spot based on goal differential.
Bucknell hosts Penn State on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. in its final home appearance of the season, then the Bison travel to Colgate on Saturday for a 3 p.m. contest.
