Bears Survive Marathon Game
In what was definitely a tough test for the Bears of Ursinus College but they emerged victorious over the visiting Eagles of Eastern College 14-11. The game could be best described as a track meet from start to finish.
The visiting Eagles struck first in the opening two minutes of the game when senior midfielder Andrew Travers (Crofton, MD) was able to get just enough on his shot to get it past Ursinus goalie Brian Neff (Ephrata, PA) for the 1-0 lead.
However, the momentum turned quickly as the Bears tallied the next four straight goals. Senior midfielder Jake Weber (Lititz, PA) tallied two of those four goals giving the Bears a 4-1 lead and finished the game as the bears leading scorer with five.
Eastern started to claw back and right as the half ended Kyle Gillam (Parkside, PA) ripped a shot past Neff to make it 8-4 at the break. That goal would lead to one of the wildest second half's either team has seen this season.
The Eagles came out firing to start the second half finding the net five time as compared to the Bears two goals. Senior Midfielder David Darling netted two of Eastern's five third quarter goals cutting the deficit to two.
Hanging on to a slim 11-9 lead at the start of the 4th quarter Ursinus fired off another series of four straight goals to extend their lead to 14-9. Senior attackman Mark Stratton (Lititz, PA) scored the final Ursinus goal of the day.
Eastern fought back though making it 14-11 with just over four minutes to play. Neff, who recorded 13 saves on the day stood tall in net and the defense held to give the Bears the win.
With the win Ursinus moves to 8-1 overall and will travel to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to take on Washington College on Wednesday night April 8th at 7:00 PM. This game will certainly have major playoff implications as both teams enter number one (Washington) and three (Ursinus) in the conference respectfully.