Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Lacrosse Takes on Bryant in Home Opener Saturday
2/21/2013 7:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 21, 2013
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's lacrosse team plays its first home game of the 2013 season on Saturday when defending Northeast Conference champion Bryant visits Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium for a 1 p.m. start. This will be the first game in a four-game homestand for the Bison, as Navy, Massachusetts and Drexel follow on the schedule.
The Bison have been no strangers to one-goal games through the years, and they have already played two in two games to start this season. After opening up with a 9-8 win at Delaware, Bucknell fell out of the national rankings this week after being upset at Mount St. Mary's 12-11 on Sunday.
Todd Heritage is off to a fast start with a team-high seven goals, four of them coming at Mount St. Mary's last time out. Chase Bailey, Sean Doyle and Thomas Flibotte all have three goals, while David Dickson has a team-high six assists.
Dickson leads the Patriot League in assists per game, while Heritage ranks fourth in goals per game.
Freshman long-stick defensive midfielder Alex Spring leads the team with nine ground balls.
Bryant is 0-2 to start the season, but both were close losses to ranked teams. The Bulldogs opened with a 14-13 overtime loss to Colgate, then fell 8-6 to Fairfield this past Saturday.
Brian Schlansker and Alex Zomerfeld lead the Bryant offense with three goals and two assists apiece. Eight different Bulldogs have multiple goals in a balanced scoring attack.
Bryant has utilized a different starting goalie in each game so far, after losing a four-year starter to graduation at the end of last season. Gunnar Waldt made 13 saves in the loss to Colgate, while Tom Carey had seven against Fairfield.
Faceoffs could be key in this game. Bryant has a talented faceoff man in Kevin Massa, who has won 35 of 49 (.714) with 26 ground balls in two games. Massa was 15-for-18 and scooped 14 ground balls in the Fairfield game. He won 63.9 percent of his faceoffs last season to rank third in the country. The Bison are winning 39 percent of their draws as a team so far.
Bucknell opens up Patriot League play the following Saturday, March 2, against Navy at 1 p.m. at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. That will be the first of five men's lacrosse Bison Vision webcasts this season.
