Bucknell Men's Lacrosse Edged by Richmond, 13-11

Saturday, February 16

Lewisburg, Pa.

2 p.m.

Bucknell University

1-2

Richmond

1-1

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Richmond	3	2	2	6	13
Bucknell	3	1	4	3	11

Photo by: Phil Puccio

Bucknell Men's Lacrosse Edged by Richmond, 13-11

2/16/2019 4:50:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

LEWISBURG, Pa. – Despite hat tricks by Matthew Barkauskas and Tommy Sopko, and 14 saves by Christian Klipstein, the Bucknell men's lacrosse team was edged by Richmond, 13-11, on Saturday at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.

During a frenetic fourth quarter that saw the teams score three goals in 27 seconds and two in 22 seconds within the first five minutes, the Spiders (1-1) outscored the Bison (1-2) by a 6-3 margin to emerge victorious. After Teddy Hatfield evened the score at 11 all with 8:38 left to play, Ryan Lanchbury netted the final two goals of the contest.

Hatfield, the Southern Conference's all-time leading scorer, led all players with six points on four goals and two assists. Lanchbury was next with five on four goals and one assist. Bucknell was led by Barkauskas, who also logged an assist, Sopko and Reed Malas (1g-2a).

Jarett Witzal won 15 of 26 faceoffs and led all players with 11 ground balls, one shy of his career high set in 2016. His 11 ground balls gave him 203 in his career; he becomes just the third Bison to collect at least 200 ground balls, joining Jake Clarke (297 from 2008-11) and Alex Spring (258 from 2013-16).

At halftime, Richmond held a slim 5-4 lead thanks to a fluky Hatfield goal posted with 34 seconds left on the clock. The Bison scored three of the third quarter's first four goals, all in a row from the 7:08 to the 4:22 marks, to build an 8-6 advantage. During that 3-0 run, Alston Tarry, Sopko and Barkauskas found the back of the net.

Mitch Savoca trimmed Bucknell's lead back down to a single goal, scoring a goal in transition with nine seconds left in the third quarter. Hatfield then opened the fourth quarter's scoring just 44 seconds in to even the score. After that, the teams traded three goals in 27 seconds to flip the score to 10-9 Bison with 12:12 left to play.

Richmond then capitalized on a man advantage at the 10:43 mark to, once again, even the score. A Barkauskas bullet put Bucknell back up, at 11-10, just 22 seconds later. But that was the last time the Bison would lead, as the Spiders answered with a 3-0 run to earn their first victory of the 2019 campaign.

With 2:09 left in regulation, shortly after Lanchbury made it a 13-11 game, Sopko was sprung ahead in transition. But Jack Rusbuldt came up with the point-blank save, his ninth of the contest, and Richmond kept Bucknell from sending a shot on target the rest of the way.

Klipstein added seven ground balls and a game-high four caused turnovers to his 14 stops. Hunter Newman and Conor Shears caused two turnovers apiece while Bryant Boswell collected five ground balls. Brendan Egan, who made his first career start at midfield, netted his first collegiate goal to open the game's scoring at the first quarter's 13:46 mark.

The Spiders led in shots (37-34) and shots on goal (27-20) while the Bison led in faceoffs (16-28) and ground balls (35-32). Richmond has now outscored its opponents, 11-3, in the final frame; at No. 3 Maryland on Feb. 9, the Spiders scored five unanswered goals during the fourth quarter but ran out of time to complete their comeback, falling 10-9.

This was the second meeting between Bucknell and Richmond. A year ago, the teams squared off for the first time on Feb. 17 at Robins Stadium. The hosts prevailed, 9-8, on a Mitch Goldberg strike with 31 seconds remaining in regulation.

Bucknell next travels to Ohio State for a 12 p.m. game on Saturday, Feb. 23.