Bucknell University
Lehigh
Bucknell Men's Lax Wins Shootout over Lehigh, 18-10, Stays Unbeaten in League
4/12/2009 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 12, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Perry Menzies (Upperco, Md./Hereford) and Mike Danylyshyn (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) scored four goals apiece to lead No. 19 Bucknell to an 18-10 win over Lehigh Saturday night at chilly Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. With the win, the Bison improved to 5-0 in the Patriot League (7-6 overall) and will now face fellow unbeaten Colgate next Saturday with home field advantage for the Patriot League Tournament on the line.
Bucknell's offense was in top form in this one, racking up 18 goals on 39 shots. The Bison scored in a variety of ways, ranging from several shots in close, to Menzies' four rockets from outside, to defenseman Tom Izard (West Hartford, Conn./Hotchkiss) firing in his first career goal from 72 yards away against Lehigh's 10-man ride.
In addition to the four-goal games from Menzies and Danylyshyn - Menzies equaled his career high while Danylyshyn established his -- Tim Brandau (Owings Mills, Md./McDonogh) tallied three goals and Austin Winter (Boonton Twp., N.J./Mountain Lakes) had two goals and four assists. Faceoff man and short-stick defensive middie Jake Clarke (Cos Cob, Conn./Greenwich) also registered his first career goal.
Ricky Cornetta had a five-point night for Lehigh (3-10, 1-3) with three goals and two assists, while Max Dahlem added two goals.
Menzies, one of 10 seniors honored before the game, played a starring role early for the Bison. He scored three times in the first nine minutes of the game, all on bullets from long range, to stake them to a 3-1 lead.
Bucknell led 4-2 after one period, then the Bison stretched it to 5-2 on a brilliant individual play by defenseman Billy Haire (Darien, Conn./Darien). In his own end, Haire checked the ball away from a Lehigh player, picked up the ground ball and sprinted about 50 yards before feathering a perfect pass in front to Winter for the layup goal. That started a wild second quarter that featured a combined 10 goals, four by each side.
Lehigh has a quick-strike offense of its own, and they stayed in it with a couple of explosive moments. Roman Lao-Gosney and Dahlem scored 34 seconds apart later in the second period to bring the Mountain Hawks within 5-4.
Bucknell stopped the run when Joe Mele (Westbury, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) lobbed a pass over a defender to Winter on the doorstep. The Bison then cashed in twice in just nine seconds. The first came on a nice individual move by middie Doug Buckley (Wantagh, N.Y./Chaminade), who cleared the ball, ran all the way behind the goal and around the other side before slipping a shot past goalie Morgan Haller. On the ensuing faceoff, Clarke picked up his own ground ball on the run along the left flank, cut back to the center of the field and fired home a shot for his first collegiate score.
A great feed from Winter to Danylyshyn for an extra-man goal gave the Bison a 9-4 lead with just 1:58 left in the half, but they let a good chunk of that cushion get away when Lehigh scored three times in the final 45 seconds. Cornetta had a hand in all three goals. First he fed Chris Lubin for a highlight-reel goal, as Lubin's behind-the-back shot bounced up just inside the crossbar. Cornetta scored an unassisted goal with 11 seconds left, then after Clarke false-started on the draw, Cornetta scored again at the buzzer to make it 9-7 at the half.
After the rough last minute against a Lehigh team that rallied from 11-3 down to beat Army earlier in the year, Bucknell settled down and played an excellent third quarter. The Bison outshot the Mountain Hawks 8-2 and outscored them 3-0 in the period. Freshman Charlie Streep (New Canaan, Conn./Loomis-Chaffee) scored on a hard low-to-low shot from the left side off a feed from Menzies just 2:29 into the second half. It stayed 10-7 until late in the period, when Mele passed from behind the net all the way up to Menzies, who ripped the top of the net for his fourth goal of the day.
Then just nine seconds before the end of the period, with the Bison up a man, Danylyshyn appeared tied up by two defenders at the left side of the next, but he somehow scored on a blind shot with his back to the goal.
Lehigh registered the first two scores of the fourth quarter, a man-down goal by Dahlem and a good shot by long pole Richard Bradley after a nice pass from Chris Linko while falling to the ground. That made it a 12-9 game, and coach Frank Fedorjaka went to his bench and brought in goalie Nick Sciubba (Sea Cliff, N.Y./Salisbury School) to replace starter Matt Antonelli (Arnold, Md./Archbishop Spalding). Sciubba made a tough save just seconds after he came on the field, and then Bucknell put an end to any thoughts of another Lehigh comeback by scoring the next six goals in succession, the first three of which came in a span of just two minutes.
Brandau shifted the momentum when he spun around his man for an unassisted tally with 8:29 to play. Then on a Bison clear attempt at the 7:25 mark, Izard noticed that Haller had vacated his crease on the ride, and Izard whipped a length-of-the-field shot perfectly into the net on the fly to put the Bison up 14-9. Sciubba was credited with the assist on the play, the first point of his career.
Only 54 seconds later Winter found Danylyshyn open for another EMO goal to make it 15-9, and Chris Palmer (Atlanta, Ga./The Lovett School), Danylyshyn and Brandau later finished the 6-0 run that put the game away.
Bucknell used all three goalies in the contest, with Antonelli making seven saves while allowing nine goals in 46:54. Sciubba played an important 9:27 and stopped three shots without giving up a goal, while Sam Finnell (Skillman, N.J./Deerfield Academy) had two quick stints in the crease totaling 3:39.
Bucknell outshot Lehigh 39-33 and won the ground-ball battle 30-26. Haire, Clarke and freshman Jason Neithamer (Alexandria, Va./St. Stephen's & St. Agnes) led the way with four GBs apiece. The Bison EMO unit went 4-for-6, and the man-down team kept Lehigh scoreless in three tries.
Clarke entered the game as the national leader in faceoff percentage, but Lehigh won 20 of the 30 draws in this one, many of them coming on infractions.
With his six points, Winter moved into eighth place on Bucknell's career list with 139. He is just four points outside the top five.
Bucknell travels to Colgate for a 1 p.m. contest next Saturday in Hamilton, N.Y. Colgate was a 10-8 winner over Lafayette on Saturday and is also now 5-0 in Patriot League play. The winner hosts the Patriot League Tournament, which will be held Apr. 24 and 26.
