Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Lehigh
Men's Lax Earns PL Tournament Home Game with 15-7 Rout of Lehigh on Senior Night
4/22/2016 10:03:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- It was another banner Senior Night for the Bucknell men's lacrosse team, which got all of the results it was looking for on the final night of Patriot League play, none bigger than its own impressive 15-7 win over Lehigh at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. That victory, coupled with a win by Loyola over Army West Point, means the Bison move up to the No. 3 seed and will host No. 6 Holy Cross in a Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal game on Tuesday night.
Bucknell (9-4, 5-3 PL) entered the night in a tie for fourth place with Lehigh (6-8, 4-4 PL), meaning the winner would earn a tournament home game, while the loser would be sent on the road for the quarterfinals. The Bison then went out and put forth a dominant effort in all phases of the game against the Mountain Hawks.
While Bucknell was winning its fourth game in a row, third-place Army West Point fell 12-7 on the road against Loyola. The Bison and Black Knights both finished 5-3 in Patriot League play, and Bucknell gets the No. 3 seed based on its head-to-head win at West Point back on Apr. 2.
Meanwhile, Holy Cross topped Boston University 11-7 in a game where the winner would grab the sixth and final playoff spot, while the loser would be eliminated. The Crusaders' win in Worcester puts them in the Patriot League Tournament for the very first time.
The Bison came into Friday night's game playing very good lacrosse, and they put together perhaps their most complete performance of the season. The eye-catcher on the stat sheet was a 24-for-26 showing at the faceoff X, led by another record-setting performance by Jarett Witzal. The freshman broke his own two-week-old school record for faceoff wins in a game with 22 in 24 attempts, and his 12 ground balls fell one shy of the team record. Witzal added his first career goal for good measure, a big one in the final minute of the third quarter that gave Bucknell a 10-5 lead.
Lehigh entered the night averaging just under 11 goals per game, but the Bison defense held them to seven goals on 25 shots, with the last of those goals coming with 22 seconds left with the benches cleared. Christian Klipstein made eight saves while allowing six goals, and the six defenders in front of him were terrific all night.
Matt Gilray, normally a defensive midfielder, started at close defense in this one due to an injury to senior Eric Monfort, and he shut down Lehigh's high-scoring senior attackman Reid Weber. Weber came into the night with a goal in 17 straight games, one of the 10 longest streaks in the country, and he had 35 goals this season and 102 in his career. But Gilray and the Bison kept Weber to just a single assist, which came in the fourth quarter in an 11-5 game. Gilray finished with two ground balls and two caused turnovers, and defenseman Mike Schiappa also caused two turnovers.
Gilray also scored the goal of the night, taking a cross-country trip across the field and around defenders before firing home a shot with his long pole late in the first quarter.
Sean Doyle, one of nine seniors honored prior to the game, tallied three goals, while Will Sands had a six-point night with two goals and four assists. Quinn Collison tacked on two goals and an assist, and Tommy O'Connor and Kyle Shanahan also scored twice.
A big key for the Bison was ball security, particularly after the faceoff wins as Lehigh used a long pole on the draws for most of the night in an effort to win the ball right back. The hard-riding Mountain Hawks came in leading the country in caused turnovers with 10.1 per game, but Bucknell committed only nine turnovers all night.
Ian Strain put Lehigh on the board first just under five minutes into the game, but the Bison scored six straight goals in a span of just 9:39 to take control. The six goals came from six different players, with Doyle, O'Connor, Gilray, Sands, Shanahan and Collison all hitting the back of the net.
Andrew Pettit's extra-man goal cut Lehigh's deficit to 7-3 at the half, and then Alex Eaton opened the second-half scoring to make it a three-goal game. Collison ended a lengthy scoring drought with a quick-stick goal off a Sands feed, but again Lehigh cut it to three on Tristan Rai's EMO goal.
Bucknell took the momentum back in the final minute of the third period, scoring twice in just six seconds to go up 10-5 after 45 minutes. The Bison were in the midst of a long possession and seemed destined to have the shot clock turned on, but with 1:21 remaining Lehigh defenseman Tripp Telesco took a cross-checking penalty. The Bison capitalized when O'Connor skipped a shot through the legs of goalie Chris Kiernan. Then Witzal cleanly won the draw, sprinted in and fired home his first collegiate goal.
The Bison scored five of the first six goals in the fourth quarter and led by as many as nine at 15-6 after a Connor O'Hara score off a rebound with 4:08 to play.
Backed by the disparity in faceoffs, Bucknell finished with sizable advantages in shots (46-25) and ground balls (35-20). Lehigh goalies Kiernan (13) and Adam Sawicki (3) combined to make 16 saves.
Witzal is now 155-for-243 (.638) on faceoffs this season. The 155 wins are now second-most in a season at Bucknell, trailing Jake Clarke's record of 163 by just eight. Witzal is also now in position to break the school record for faceoff percentage in a season. Clarke also holds that mark at .617.
Witzal just missed Clarke's single-game records for faceoff percentage and ground balls. Clarke went 20-for-21 (.952) with 13 ground balls against Penn State in 2009.
Elsewhere on the milestone chart, Doyle moved past Dennis Geraghty into eighth place on Bucknell's career goals list with 96.
Bucknell has now reached the nine-win mark for the eighth time in the last 11 years.
The Bison will host Holy Cross on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal round. The other quarterfinal will feature No. 5 Lehigh traveling to No. 4 Army West Point.
Bucknell defeated Holy Cross 18-12 in Worcester back on March 12. Sands had a career day with seven goals for the Bison, who trailed 7-2 early in the game but stormed back with a 13-2 run in the second half.
