Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Holy Cross
Men's Lax Rolls Past No. 20 Holy Cross, 15-6
3/14/2015 3:50:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Will Sands piled up three goals and six assists, David Dickson tallied three goals and three assists, and the Bucknell men's lacrosse team dominated the final three periods in a 15-6 rout of No. 20 Holy Cross in a battle for first place in the Patriot League on Saturday at rain-soaked Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
Both teams came in with 2-1 Patriot League marks and were part of a four-way tie for first place along with Colgate and Navy. The Raiders dropped a non-league game to Fairfield, while Navy held off Lehigh 13-12 to join the Bison as co-leaders.
The Crusaders (3-4) were off to their best conference start in program history. They had never before beaten a top-20 team until toppling No. 8 Loyola and No. 9 Army in a two-week span. All three of Holy Cross' victories came by one goal, and Bucknell's first six games were decided by a total of eight goals. This one had the makings of another tight game, as it was all tied up at 4-4 two minutes into the second quarter.
But over the final 42 minutes the dam broke and the Bison outscored the Crusaders 12-3 while equaling the team record for victory margin against a nationally ranked team. Bucknell defeated No. 13 Drexel by nine goals (17-8) in 2013.
The goal that broke the 4-4 tie was one for the highlight reel, as Dickson cut to the crease, took a pass from Sands and flipped a wraparound shot behind his head into the upper corner of the goal. Sands and Dickson were nearly unstoppable, as one of them either scored or assisted on 11 of the team's first 13 goals.
Dickson's feeding prowess is well-known, as the All-American ranks second among all active Division I players in career assists with 114. Just seven games into his freshman season, Sands is taking a page from his senior teammate's feeding handbook. After his nine-point performance on Saturday, Sands now leads the team with 22 points on 11 goals and 11 assists. Dickson has six goals and 12 assists in only four games, after missing the first three with an injury.
After the Dickson wraparound shot, Bucknell took the first multi-goal lead for either side when Dickson returned the favor with a pass to Sands to make it 6-4. In the final four minutes of the half, Sands fed Doyle for a tough-angle shot and Thomas Flibotte for a rocket from long range, giving the Bison an 8-4 lead at the break.
Unassisted goals by Sands and Tommy O'Connor stretched the margin to 10-4 early in the third quarter, and one more Dickson-to-Sands combo with 2:09 left in the period bulged the differential to 13-4 after 45 minutes.
Quinn Collison scored his first two goals of the season, the first coming on a pretty fastbreak set up by a Sam Grinberg save and outlet feed to Brock Ghelfi. Those two scores made it 15-5 as the Bison reserves poured in off the bench.
Jon Vogel was the star of the day for Holy Cross, factoring on all six Crusader scores with five goals and an assist. The sophomore was filling in for injured starting attackman Clay Haarman and came into the game without a point in one previous appearance this season.
Grinberg finished with eight saves in 57:33, and Frank Morelli made a late stop after coming on in relief. Holy Cross goalie Michael Ortlieb tallied five saves.
Alex Spring had another solid game with four ground balls and two caused turnovers, and Ben Kellar and Ghelfi also tallied two caused turnovers apiece.
Bucknell had its best shooting day of the season, scoring on 8 of 16 first-half shots and 15 of 35 for the game. The Bison finished with a 35-29 shot advantage and also led 26-20 in ground balls and 13-12 in faceoffs. Freshmen Sam Hahn (9-18) and Jake Dunlop (4-7) took all of the draws for Bucknell. Hahn led the team with five ground balls.
Sands' nine points were two shy of the program record of 11 points. Four Bison have recorded 11 points in a game, most recently Billy Eisenreich against Robert Morris in 2012.
Bucknell is now 25-0 all-time against Holy Cross, which is now coached by former Bison assistant Judd Lattimore. The Bison will now head to New England for its next two games. They will play a non-league game at Brown on Tuesday at 4 p.m., followed by a Patriot League contest at Boston University next Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
