Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell's Clarke, Antonelli Earn Patriot League Men's Lax Weekly Citations
3/23/2009 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
March 23, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Senior Matt Antonelli (Arnold, Md./Archbishop Spalding) and sophomore Jake Clarke (Cos Cob, Conn./Loomis-Chaffee), two inspiring members of the Bucknell men's lacrosse team, were rewarded for their outstanding efforts with Patriot League Player of the Week honors on Monday. Clarke was named the PL Defensive Player of the Week, while Antonelli earned Goalie of the Week honors.
Antonelli, respected enough by his teammates that he was elected co-captain this season despite being the backup goalie, got his chance to shine in the cage this week and led the Bison to two victories. Clarke, a former walk-on who is now making a name for himself as both a faceoff man and a short-stick defensive midfielder, had another dominant week at the X, winning 21 of 31 (.677) in the wins over Denver and Air Force.
With Bucknell's defense struggling early in the second quarter against No. 18 Denver last Tuesday, coach Frank Fedorjaka called Antonelli off the bench with the team trailing 4-2. Antonelli allowed only four goals and made five saves in the final 40-plus minutes, while the Bison came from behind to win 13-8. Then on Saturday against Air Force at the Patriot Cup in Dallas, Antonelli earned his first start of the year and made a career-high 13 saves while letting only two shots slip past him. The 9-2 win over the Falcons evened the team's record at 4-4 on the year.
Antonelli upped his season save percentage to .675 while lowering his goals-against average to 4.60 after the stellar performance against Air Force.
His classmate, Nick Sciubba (Sea Cliff, N.Y./Salisbury School), had won PL Goalie of the Week honors in two of the previous three weeks. This is the first time in league history that two different netminders from the same school have garnered Goalie of the Week accolades in consecutive weeks.
Meanwhile, Clarke continues to author a terrific story as the leader of Bucknell's resurgent faceoff game. As a team, the Bison won only 44.0 percent of its draws last season, but in 2009 Clarke is converting at a 60.0 percent clip, and the team is winning 56.5 percent on the year.
Clarke went 14-for-21 (.667) at the faceoff mark in the Denver win, then he went 7-for-10 (.700) against an Air Force team that had been strong at the X coming in. He had eight ground balls in the Denver game and five more against Air Force, and he now has a team and league-leading 46 on the season, a total that also ranks 14th nationally. He also leads the league and ranks seventh in the nation in faceoff percentage.
Antonelli, Clarke and the rest of the Bison will be back in action on Tuesday night, hosting Towson in a non-conference game at 7:30 p.m. at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
