Bucknell University
Colgate
Bucknell Men's Lax Falls to Colgate in Patriot League Championship, 13-9
4/27/2008 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 27, 2008
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Brandon Corp registered three goals and two assists and Chris Eck dominated at the faceoff X, leading Colgate to a 13-9 victory over Bucknell in the Patriot League men's lacrosse championship game on Sunday afternoon at Michie Stadium. Joe Mele (Westbury, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) had two goals and an assist for the Bison (10-5), who were playing in the championship game for the first time.
The Bison had very few offensive possessions in this one, as Colgate won 20 of the 26 faceoffs, including all 11 in the fourth quarter. Eck took all but one of those 26 draws and finished with 11 ground balls. Bucknell rallied from a four-goal deficit and pulled within one early in the fourth quarter, but the Raiders answered with three goals in 1:34 as part of a six-goal fourth quarter.
While Colgate (10-5) advances to the NCAA Tournament for the first time, Bucknell must rely on a possible at-large berth to continue its season. The 16-team field will be announced next Sunday.
Both goalies played well in the opening period, with Matt Antonelli (Arnold, Md./Archbishop Spalding) making five saves for the Bison and Tim Harrington four for Colgate, including two straight point-blank saves on Tim Brandau (Owings Mills, Md./McDonogh) and Ryan Klipstein (Califon, N.J./Rutgers Prep). Antonelli, who picked up the win in relief Friday's semifinal victory over Army, was making his first start since the second game of the 2007 season.
Colgate drew first blood on Ian Murphy's 10-yard shot just 1:26 into the game. After Harrington's two tough saves, the Bison tied it at the 6:41 mark of the first period when sophomore Chris Palmer (Atlanta, Ga./The Lovett School) took a defender 1-on-1 from the left corner and scored his second goal of the season.
The Raiders went ahead 2-1 on Nick Monastero's goal 1:19 into the second quarter, but the Bison pocketed the next two. First, Brandau quick-sticked home a pass from Mele at the 11:29 mark of the second, then short-stick defensive midfielder Mark Lane (Boontown Twp., N.J./Mountain Lakes) made a spectacular individual play for a man-down goal. In his own end, Lane grabbed a loose ball, circled behind his own goal, ran the length of the field and bounced in a shot in traffic.
It was Lane's first goal of the year, and the team's first shorthanded tally of the season, but Colgate took control with five unanswered goals.
The Raiders tied it with 7:34 left in the second quarter thanks to a fortunate bounce. Corp ran into a double team at the left side of the cage and had the ball checked from his stick. The ball popped in the air right to Zack Craumer on the doorstep, however, and he tossed in the equalizer.
A Bison turnover led to a Colgate goal just before halftime. John Togneri (Longmeadow, Mass./Loomis-Chaffee) tried to split a double-team just inside the top of the box and had his stick checked out of his hands. D-middie Chris Mulholland finished the fastbreak at the other end for the Raiders with 1:59 left in the half, and Colgate led 4-3 at intermission.
Murphy's sidearm shot from nine yards out four minutes into the third quarter made it 5-3, then Kevin Colleluori scored twice in a row off Bison turnovers to finish the 5-0 run. First, Bucknell won a faceoff but gave the ball right back to Colgate. Colleluori finished a fastbreak give-and-go from Corp to make it 6-3 with 10:41 left in the quarter. Almost four minutes later the Bison turned it over at midfield on a clear, giving Colleluori a breakaway and a 7-3 lead.
Bucknell got back in it with three in a row, starting with a spinning shot from Klipstein that ended a 22-minute scoring drought. With a minute left in the third, Mele pounced on a rebound right in front after a Harrington save on Klipstein, and Mele scored to make it 7-5.
The Bison pulled within one on a strange goal early in the fourth quarter. Lane made yet another shorthanded length-of-the-field run and passed to Austin Winter (Boonton Twp., N.J./Mountain Lakes) on the left side. Winter's pass was knocked down in front of the cage, but Doug Buckley (Wantagh, N.Y./Chaminade) poked the loose ball across the line to make it 7-6.
Colgate quickly erased Bucknell's momentum thanks to Eck's continued stellar play at the X. Just 26 seconds after the Bison got within one, Corp scored the first of his three fourth-quarter goals. Colgate won the next faceoff, and Craumer finished a Matt Lalli pass to make it 9-6. Then just seven seconds later Eck won another draw and got the ball to Corp, who raced in from the left side and scored to make it a four-goal game again.
Another Lane runout led to a Winter goal with 9:08 remaining, but Colgate got the next three, including an empty-netter, to put the game away. Mele and Mike Danylyshyn (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) added late goals for the Bison.
Winter had a goal and an assist for Bucknell, giving him 19 goals and 33 assists for 52 points on the season. The 33 assists are tied for fifth-most in a season in program history, while the 52 points rank 11th.
Lane also had a two-point game and was terrific all day. He collected a team-high five ground balls and made a number of sensational runs down the field. Lane, Winter and defenseman Billy Haire (Darien, Conn./Darien) were all selected to the all-tournament team.
Antonelli finished with 11 saves, while Harrington also had 11 for the Raiders. Colleluori added three goals and Lalli had four assists for Colgate, whose 46-29 shot advantage was emblematic of the time-of-possession disparity.
"The big difference in the game were the faceoffs," said Bison head coach Frank Fedorjaka, who has led his team to back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in program history. "We were on defense 75 percent of the game. We had some issues clearing the ball, which then prolonged some of our defensive series. The snow on the roof finally caved in in the fourth quarter."
