Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Lafayette
Klipstein Has Record Day but Bison Men's Lax Falls in Shootout to No. 11 Lafayette, 16-15
3/20/2010 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
March 20, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Junior midfielder Ryan Klipstein (Califon, N.J./Rutgers Prep) tied the Bucknell record with eight goals and teammate Austin Winter (Boonton Township, N.J./Mountain Lakes) tied his career high with nine points on two goals and seven assists, but the 18th-ranked Bison came up on the short end of a wild 16-15 shootout against 11th-ranked and still unbeaten Lafayette Saturday afternoon at sun-splashed Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
The Patriot League's two highest-scoring teams engaged in a thriller that included eight ties and five lead changes. Lafayette, which is nationally ranked for the first time in program history and was coming off a 15-8 rout of Navy last week, is now 6-0 overall and atop the Patriot League standings at 2-0. The Bison fell to 4-3 overall and 0-2 in the league.
The Winter-to-Klipstein combo was lethal all day for the Bison. Klipstein became only the second player in program history to record eight goals in a game, joining Jim Ball who did it against Penn State all the way back in 1979. Winter assisted on five of Klipstein's goals, and his seven assists are a career high. Winter, who also had a nine-point game against Towson in 2008, moved into a tie for fourth place on Bucknell's career scoring list with 179 points.
Winter got the scoring started with an unassisted goal just 1:15 into the game. Lafayette posted the next two less than a minute apart, and the chaos began. The game was tied at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 12, 14 and 15. Lafayette led 6-5 after the first period and it was 9-9 at intermission after Mike Danylyshyn (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) and Klipstein closed the first-half scoring, the latter coming with just four seconds remaining.
Bucknell made a major move early in the second half, scoring three straight times to take the largest lead of the day for either team. Billy Eisenreich (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) hit from deep 4:23 into the half to put Bucknell in front. Klipstein scored on the crease off a Charlie Streep (New Canaan, Conn./Loomis-Chaffee) feed, then freshman Kyle O'Keefe (Madison, N.J./Hotchkiss) made a slick pass through traffic to Streep to give the Bison a 12-9 lead.
Bucknell almost made it a four-goal advantage but Brandon Buchmayr (Darien, Conn./Darien) rang the crossbar so hard that the ball went out of bounds on the sideline on the other half of the field. After the restart, Buchmayr fell down with the ball at the top of the box, leading to a Lafayette fastbreak. Chris Palliser finished a Tom Perini feed with 2:50 left in the third quarter, ending Bucknell's 5-0 run and a 17:44 scoreless drought for the Leopards.
The Bison seemed to lose their legs in the middle part of the second half. They were not only playing without seven injured players, but they were also coming off a physical, fast-paced game against Jacksonville in North Carolina on Tuesday, while the Leopards had not played in eight days.
With First Team All-Patriot League faceoff man Jake Clarke (Cos Cob, Conn./Greenwich) still sidelined with an injury, Lafayette controlled the faceoff game for most of the day, and that got the Leopards back in it. Only 55 seconds after the Palliser goal, Chris Ahern scored with a man up to make it 12-11 after three, then the Leopards scored three times in the first 6:09 of the fourth period to cap a 5-0 run of their own.
Kevin Dunbar tied the game at 12, then Perini and Matt Mersky found open space for goals to give Lafayette a 14-12 lead with 8:51 left.
The Bison were hardly done, however. A penalty on the faceoff scrum gave Bucknell's vaunted EMO unit a chance, and it needed only a few passes to connect, with Klipstein scoring off a Winter feed to make it 14-13 just 24 seconds after the Mersky goal. Just over a minute later Winter hit Danylyshyn in front to tie it 14.
Colin Serling momentarily put Lafayette back in front with 4:48 remaining, but after Christian Tucker (Ringoes, N.J./Hunterdon Central) won the faceoff, Klipstein batted in a Winter pass in front to tie it back up at 15 with 3:45 left.
This time Cesar Munoz controlled the draw for Lafayette, but Kyle Feeney (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) came up with a clutch save, one of his career-high 19 in the game, on Steve Serling. The Bison cleared, but while working the ball around at the top of the box, they threw it right to Serling. Lafayette came down in transition, and with 2:13 remaining Perini fed Stefan Bauer for what would ultimately be the deciding goal.
The Bison still had plenty of life as Tucker won the faceoff. Eisenreich had a shot blocked, but a Lafayette defenseman immediately threw the ball away with 1:20 to play. Then with 32 seconds left, Lafayette goalie Vinny DePasquale made his biggest save of the day, denying Klipstein's bid for a ninth goal on an outside shot.
On the clear, Lafayette's Serling took one step into the Bucknell box but was immediately pushed back out with 18 seconds left. One official signaled Bucknell possession, but on the other side of the field another official granted Lafayette a timeout before the turnover. The Bison did force a turnover with nine seconds left, but a desperation length-of-the-field pass was off the mark and time expired.
That gave Lafayette its first victory over Bucknell since 1993, ending a 16-game losing streak.
Lafayette finished with a 44-36 edge in shots, made possible by a 21-12 cushion in faceoffs. Munoz took every draw for the Leopards and collected a game-high 10 ground balls. While Feeney had 19 saves, DePasquale had 10 for Lafayette.
In addition to the career games by Klipstein and Winter, Streep finished with two goals and two assists, Danylyshyn had two goals and Eisenreich had a goal and an assist.
Klipstein became the third Division I player to score eight goals in a game this season, joining Stony Brook's Jordan McBride and Delaware's Curtis Dickson, who rank 1-2 nationally in scoring. Winter's seven assists are the most in the nation this season, as no other player had more than five in a game entering the weekend.
The Bucknell record for assists in a game is nine, set by Matt Fraser against Lafayette in 1980.
Lafayette's scoring was much more balanced, as six players scored multiple goals and eight had multiple points. Bauer led the way with three goals and two assists, while Perini and Brett Djaha logged two goals and three assists. Of the Leopards' 16 goals, 14 were assisted.
Bucknell's EMO team went 3-for-5 and is now 14-for-27 on the season.
All three of Bucknell's losses have come by one goal this season, including overtime setbacks to Duke and Navy. The Bison will now have two non-league games coming up against Albany and Penn State before getting back to league play at Holy Cross on Apr. 3.
