Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Lacrosse Opens PL Slate Saturday vs. Navy on Bison Vision
2/28/2013 7:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 28, 2013
- Bucknell-Navy: GameTracker
| Webcast 
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's lacrosse game is only three games into the 2013 season, but Patriot League play is already here as the Bison host Navy on Saturday in the first league game of the year. Game time is 1 p.m. at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, and the contest will air live on Bison Vision.
Bucknell comes in with a 2-1 mark following last Saturday's 10-8 home win over Bryant. The Bison also have a one-goal win over Delaware and a one-goal loss to Mount St. Mary's on their ledger. The Midshipmen opened the season with one-sided wins over VMI and Detroit, but since then they have dropped two straight one-goal decisions against Fairfield and Georgetown. Sunday's 9-8 loss to the Hoyas came in overtime.
Bucknell has gotten balanced scoring early on, with seven players recording multiple goals and eight collecting multiple points so far. Chase Bailey and David Dickson lead the squad with 10 points apiece. Bailey had a hat trick in Saturday's win over Bryant and now has six goals and four assists on the season. Dickson has 10 assists and leads the Patriot Ljavascript:mctmp(0);eague in assists per game.
Todd Heritage ranks seventh in the league with eight goals, and two-time Patriot League Rookie of the Week Thomas Flibotte has five.
Defensively, the Bison are led by Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Mike Huffner, this week's PL Defensive Player of the Week Jackson Place, and senior goalie Kyle Feeney. Place had a career-high six caused turnovers in the win over Bryant, while Feeney was very active around the crease, intercepting four passes and recording seven ground balls. Huffner had three GBs against Bryant, while the long-stick defensive middie tandem of senior Wills Miller and freshman Alex Spring combined for eight GBs and five caused turnovers.
Bucknell is clearing at an 86.3 percent clip through three games, and the special teams have fared well. The Bison have killed of 7 of 8 man-down situations while scoring on 6 of 17.
Navy has outscored its opponents 48-33 through four games. Tucker Hull (6-6-12), Sam Jones (7-4-11), Austin Heneveld (4-5-9), Gabe Voumard (6-2-8) and Pat Durkin (6-1-7) are the scoring leaders.
Navy has won half of its faceoffs on the season, but Sean Reilly has captured 60.7 percent (17-28). Navy opponents are just 2-for-22 with a man advantage, while the Mids are 5-for-16.
Nolan Hickey has started all four games in goal and has a .583 save percentage and a 7.93 goals-against average.
Navy has a 7-5 series lead in 12 all-time meetings. The two teams had played five straight one goals games until last year in Annapolis, when the Bison rolled to a 14-9 verdict. That was Bucknell's first win over Navy by more than one goal.
Bailey scored three goals and Billy Eisenreich had two goals and five assists in last year's meeting. Peter Burke added two goals and two assists. Hull led Navy with three goals and two assists.
Bucknell and Navy have played some wild games in recent history, and the last contest in Lewisburg in 2011 was no exception. In that game the Bison had a 9-5 lead early in the second half, but the Midshipmen stormed back with 10-9 with two minutes to go. Bailey restored some order with a man-up goal with 1:15 left to put Bucknell up 11-9, but stunningly Nikk Davis scored two goals in the final 18 seconds of regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime. But then-freshman Heritage got the Bison off the hook with the game-winner 1:20 into the second overtime period.
All told, seven of the 12 Bucknell-Navy games have been decided by one goal, including three overtime contests. Bucknell's overtime win in 2011 avenged an 8-7 sudden-death loss in Annapolis the previous season. In 2009, Bucknell won the regular-season matchup on then-freshman Charlie Streep's dramatic last-second goal, but then the Mids returned to Lewisburg later that spring and edged the Bison 9-8 in the Patriot League championship game.
This is the second of four straight home games for the Bison. They will be home again the following Saturday, March 9 against Massachusetts, and again on March 12 against Drexel.
