Bucknell University
Penn
No. 20 Bucknell's Comeback Falls Short in 6-4 Loss to No. 14 Penn in Men's Lacrosse
3/21/2006 7:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
March 21, 2006
LEWISBURG, Pa. - The 20th-ranked Bucknell men's lacrosse team scored four unanswered goals in the second half to cut a five-goal halftime deficit to one, but could not draw even as the Bison fell to No. 14 Penn 6-4 Tuesday night at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. Joe Mele (Westbury, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) led Bucknell with two goals.
Penn (6-0) dominated the first half as it took a 5-0 lead into halftime. The Quakers, who outshot the Bison 18-10 in the first half, didn't score their first goal until 6:45 was left in the first quarter, but proceeded to tally three goals in 5:28 in a stretch spanning the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second. Four different players registered Penn's first four goals as Alan Eberstein, Luke Dixson, David Andrezejewski and James Riordan found the back of the net. Riordan's was the first of two man-up goals for the Quakers.
With 47 seconds left in the first half, Riordan scored Penn's fifth goal and his second of the game. It was the final goal the high-powered Quaker offense that was averaging nearly 13 goals a game would score for more than 22 minutes.
After eating up more than two minutes of clock on its first possession of the second half, Bucknell (3-4) finally got on the board with 11:02 to play when Kirk Klett (Mt. Lebanon, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) scored his eighth goal of the season. Mele, the leading scorer on the team, then netted a pair of goals less than four minutes apart to bring Bucknell to within two at the end of the third quarter.
Less than one minute into the final quarter, John Togneri (Longmeadow, Mass./Loomis Chaffee) wound up with a left-handed shot from the point position and fired the ball past a number of defenders to narrow the deficit to just one goal.
It appeared Penn went up 6-4 with just over nine minutes to play when Andrezejewski found the back of the net with a diving shot, but he was whistled for being in the crease. However, David Cornbrooks scored on Penn's next possession to put the Quakers up two.
In the final minutes Penn gained possession and called timeout as it nursed its two-goal lead. Matt Baran (Wilmington, Del./Tatnall), Bucknell's goalie who made 10 saves, intercepted the first pass as play restarted to give the Bison another chance. However, Bucknell was unable to get a shot past Penn goalie Gregory Klossner, who stopped 11 shots in the game.
The game was played even statistically with Bucknell outshooting Penn 29-28 and winning the ground ball battle by a slim 24-22 margin. The Bison also claimed 8 of 12 faceoffs. However, Bucknell was just 11 of 16 on clear opportunities, while Penn was 16 of 20. The Quakers also took advantage of four extra-man opportunities, scoring twice. The Bison were 0-for-3.
Bucknell continues its brief two-game homestand Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. when it hosts Patriot League foe Lafayette at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. The game is scheduled to be broadcast live on CSTV.
