Bucknell University Athletics
First Place on Line as Bison Host No. 20 Holy Cross in PL Lax Action
3/13/2015 11:47:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Bucknell vs. Holy Cross: Watch Live | Live Stats
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's lacrosse team goes for its third straight victory and fifth in its last six games on Saturday when 20th-ranked Holy Cross visits Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium for a 1 p.m start on the Patriot League Network. The winner will maintain at least a share of first place in the Patriot League.
Most teams have yet to reach the midway point in their schedules, but the Patriot League race is already getting wild. Every team has as a conference loss, and eight of the nine teams are separated by just a single game. Bucknell, Holy Cross, Navy and Colgate enter the weekend in a four-way tie for first place at 2-1. Navy hosts Lehigh, and Colgate has a non-conference affair at Fairfield on Saturday.
Bucknell (4-2) and Holy Cross (3-3) have met 24 times previously, and the Bison have won all 24. However, this is a Crusaders squad that is off to one of its best starts in program history. Holy Cross had only won two league games in a season once before (2013) and had never beaten a nationally ranked team prior to this year. But already this season the Crusaders have knocked off No. 8 Loyola (13-12) and No. 9 Army (7-6), and they also beat a strong Fairfield team 10-9 in the season opener.
Holy Cross has also suffered a close 7-6 loss to Navy, as well as blowout losses to Delaware (18-6) and No. 10 Harvard (20-9). The loss to the Crimson came in its most recent outing on Monday. Sean Wilkinson had three goals and three assists in that game, and he leads the team in scoring with 22 points on 12 goals and 10 assists for the season. Kevin Lux (10-3-13), Clay Haarman (11-0-11) and Terry McKenna (8-3-11) are other top scorers.
Michael Ortleib has played every minute in goal so far and has a .486 save percentage and a 12.00 goals-against average.
Adding to the drama of Saturday's matchup are the Bucknell ties on the Holy Cross sideline. First-year head coach Judd Lattimore was an assistant coach at Bucknell for three seasons from 2009-11. His two assistants -- Ryan Klipstein and Jordan Neis -- are both Bucknell graduates and were seniors on the Bison's 2011 Patriot League championship squad.
Their alma mater has played nothing but nailbiters so far in 2015. Bucknell's six games have been decided by a total of eight goals. The Bison have three one-goal victories (Navy 8-7, Lehigh 9-8 OT, Fairfield 10-9), a two-goal victory (Bryant 7-5), a one-goal loss (Delaware 12-11) and a two-goal loss (Colgate 10-8).
Senior Ryan Joseph has played a starring role in each of the last two victories. He scored in overtime to beat Lehigh last Saturday, and his goal with 1:51 left in the fourth quarter was the game-winner against Fairfield on Tuesday. Joseph entered the year with 14 career goals, and he already has a team-high 14 in six games this season.
The Bison offense has received a major lift from the return of David Dickson, who missed the first three games of the season with a wrist injury. Since rejoining the lineup, the senior middie has piled up 12 points on three goals and nine assists in three games. Dickson, whose 111 career assists are second-most among all active Division I players, has assisted on one-third (9 of 27) of Bucknell's goals since his return.
Senior crease attackman Alex Ryan got going with three goals in the Fairfield game, and junior Sean Doyle upped his consecutive points streak to 35, the eighth-longest in the country. He has a goal or an assist in every game in his career so far.
Junior long-stick defensive middie Alex Spring has recorded eight ground balls in each of his last two games, and he leads the team with 35 ground balls on the season. He ranks third in the Patriot League and 21st nationally at 5.83 GBs per game. Spring also ranks second in the league and 18th in the country in caused turnovers per game (1.67).
The close defense trio of senior Ben Kellar, sophomore Mike Schiappa and freshman Lukas Munoz has been sturdy in front of goalie Sam Grinberg, who has posted a .563 save percentage and an 8.38 goals-against average. Freshman goalie Brac McKee was outstanding in a relief stint in Tuesday's win over Fairfield. He made six saves in that one, including a game-saver from close range with four seconds remaining in regulation.
Led by a 5-for-8 performance from freshman Jake Dunlop, Bucknell won the faceoff battle against Fairfield. The Bison are up to 42.1 percent on faceoffs this season, and they will be going up against a Holy Cross team that wins 44.4 percent of its draws.
The Bison routed Holy Cross 18-8 on the road last season, led by a career-high eight points (2G, 6A) from Doyle and 12 saves from Grinberg.
Following the Holy Cross game, Bucknell will travel to Brown for a Tuesday afternoon affair next week in Providence, Rhode Island. The Bison defense will be put to the test in that one, as Brown is the highest-scoring team in the country at 18.5 goals per game.
The Bears are 4-0 and have scored at least 17 goals in each of their wins over Quinnipiac, Massachusetts, Hartford and Michigan. Dylan Molloy has a national-best 26 goals in four games for the Bears, who host Harvard on Saturday.
