Men's Lax Brings Nation's Highest Scoring Offense to Hanover Saturday for Date with Dartmouth

Saturday, February 15

Hanover, N.H.

1 p.m.

Bucknell University

Dartmouth

Photo by: Bob Latchford

Men's Lax Brings Nation's Highest Scoring Offense to Hanover Saturday for Date with Dartmouth

2/12/2025 12:25:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Bucknell (2-0) at Dartmouth (0-0)
When: Saturday, Feb. 15, 1 p.m.
Where: Scully-Fahey Field, Hanover, N.H.
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bucknell men's lacrosse team has been piling up goals at a record pace through the first two weeks of the 2025 season, and the Bison bring the highest-scoring offense in the nation into Saturday's game at Dartmouth. This will be Bucknell's first-ever trip to Dartmouth, and the Big Green will be making their season debut.
Bucknell received three voting points in this week's USILA Coaches' Poll. Five Patriot League teams picked up votes this week. Army is ranked 12th nationally, while Loyola, Bucknell, Boston University, and Navy are all among "others receiving votes".
The Bison opened the campaign with a 23-7 home victory over Merrimack on Feb. 1, and then last Saturday they took their goals show on the road and routed St. Bonaventure 21-8. This is the first time in the 58-year history of the program that the team scored 20 or more goals in back-to-back games, and Bucknell enters Saturday's contest leading the nation in goals (22.0), assists (14.0), and points (36.0) per game.
The Bison also rank second nationally in scoring margin (14.5), fifth in man-up offense (.875), sixth in ground balls (38.0), and sixth in shot percentage (.383).
Bucknell's veteran attack trio has led the scoring barrage. Senior Connor Davis (13-1-14) and juniors Michael Meyer (8-6-14) and Will Hopkins (4-4-8) have already accounted for 25 goals and 11 assists in two games. Davis' 13 goals are the most in the nation, and Meyer ranks eighth nationally in assists per game.
It's been more than just the starting attack group filling up the nets, as 12 different Bison have scored a goal and 17 have at least one point thus far. Sean Berrigan (2-4-6), Luke Brunner (4-1-5), Owen Kovacs (4-1-5), Peter Grandolfo (3-2-5), Anthony Panetti (2-2-4), Cam Doolan (1-1-2), and Sean Kerwick (1-1-2) all have multiple points.
Perhaps overshadowed by all of the offensive fireworks are strong starts at the defensive end and at the faceoff X.
Will Pickering, who was the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week after the Merrimack game, ranks ninth nationally with 3.0 caused turnovers per game. He has six on the season along with four ground balls, and the Bison ranked 12th nationally in scoring defense allowing only 7.5 goals per game.
Junior Luke Renaud, in his first season at Bucknell after transferring from UMass Lowell, has started both games in goal and has a .538 save percentage and an 8.00 goals-against average. Freshman Parker Day has made relief appearances in both games and has nine saves with only two goals allowed.
Sophomore Ben Concepcion has been outstanding on faceoffs thus far. He ranks second nationally with a .741 FO% (20-27). Concepcion was the PL Faceoff Specialist of the Week after the Merrimack game. Freshman Brandan Edwards is a solid 10-for-18, and NJIT transfer Steven Pepe is 4-for-6.
Junior defensive middie John Young leads the team with 11 ground balls, followed by freshman Jack Tully and Concepcion with six each.
Bucknell's man-up unit has been virtually unstoppable thus far. The Bison are 7-for-8, with Davis and Meyer accounting for two EMO tallies apiece. At the other end, the Bucknell man-down group has killed off 9 of 12 penalties.
Bucknell has cleared the ball at an 89.4 percent success rate, while opponents are just 73.2 percent.

Dartmouth at a Glance

The Big Green are making their 2025 season debut on Saturday. Second-year head coach Sean Kirwan's squad is looking to bounce back from a 3-10 season a year ago.
Dartmouth a year ago was off to a 3-3 start but dropped its final seven games, six of them coming in the competitive Ivy League, where five of the six opponents were nationally ranked at the time of the game.
Defenseman Thomas Goguen was a Second Team All-Ivy League selection last season. He had three caused turnovers and five ground balls against Bucknell last year and went on to post 19 CTs and 43 GBs on the season.
Colin McGill led Dartmouth with 28 goals and 34 points last season. He scored at least one goal in every game, with a high of five against Holy Cross and four against Stony Brook.
Nate Davis (18-11-29), Brandon Ventarola (5-14-19), and Hopper Zappitello (5-9-14) are other top returning point producers.
Dartmouth had three different goalies make starts last season. Mason Morel saw the most minutes and finished with 132 saves and 127 goals against in 10 appearances.

The Bucknell-Dartmouth Series

Bucknell and Dartmouth met for the first time last season at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, and the Bison won 15-13 behind five goals from Will Hopkins.
The Bison jumped out to a 5-0 lead after only 4:17 of play and never ceded the advantage even though Dartmouth pulled within one on two occasions. It was a 14-13 game in the final two minutes when Connor Davis scored his third of the day to ice it.
Cam Doolan tallied a goal and two assists and Chris Begier scored twice for the Bison, who out-shot Dartmouth 44-32.
Nate Davis and Peter Lapina logged three goals each for the Big Green, and Brandon Ventarola tallied four assists.

Next Up

This is the second of four straight road games for the Bison. Bucknell travels to Frank Fedorjaka's alma mater for a date with Hobart next Saturday at 1 p.m.