COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus men's lacrosse team stated its case for an emphatic return to the USILA Division III rankings on Saturday afternoon, building a sizeable lead and riding it all the way home to a 14-10 triumph over No. 17 Dickinson. Freshman Peter DeSimone netted four first-half goals and senior Patrick O'Donoghue provided an unexpected source of firepower in addition to his typically stellar defense as the Bears extended their winning streak to six and remained unbeaten in Centennial Conference play.
Laxpower.com billed this contest as all but a top-10 battle, with Dickinson (7) and Ursinus (11) each residing within the upper echelon of the website's computer ratings. The Bears (8-1, 3-0), which entered the season ranked 14th in Division III before falling out after a one-goal loss at nationally ranked Frostburg State, proved they stack up with the nation's premier programs and moved to 5-0 at Patterson Field with another dominant effort.
After John Lockwood opened the scoring about five minutes in, Ursinus flipped a switch, embarking on a six-goal run of unanswered markers, a stretch that began with a transition tally from O'Donoghue. DeSimone sandwiched a pair of strikes around the second from O'Donoghue, who took a feed from freshman Tim Miller and converted on the break. After DeSimone took advantage of a defensive lapse when a defender left him at the right post, sophomore Ian Desenberg capped the surge with an unassisted tally with just 11 ticks remaining in the opening period.
Junior Matt Cioeta roofed a top-shelf rocket after grabbing the rebound off a missed shot, stretching the Bear lead to 6-1 less than a minute into the second. The Red Devils found their footing with three goals in a row to slice the deficit to two, but DeSimone squelched the rally with back-to-back strikes as Ursinus took an 8-4 lead into intermission.
Dickinson got to within 9-6 on a goal by Tucker Carney at 11:03 of the third quarter, but senior Mike Durst readied a response four minutes later, sending a bouncer past Red Devil goalie Nick Baxter, who came in leading the CC in save percentage, to restore a four-goal margin.
Sophomore Gerard Brown, the league's assist leader, and DeSimone facilitated successive goals by senior Steve Mussoline and Desenberg, the last at 2:38 of the frame, to help Ursinus double up the Devils (12-6) after three.
Dickinson never got closer than five the rest of the way. Durst struck on a leaping right-handed snipe, and freshman Sam Isola closed the scoring for the Bears, who surrendered two goals to Chris Menard in the final 40 seconds and change as the Red Devils put up some cosmetic scoring.
Lockwood finished with two goals and three assists for Dickinson, with Menard adding three markers and Dylan Maher and Tyler Llewellyn chipping in two each. Baxter recorded 11 saves.
Dickinson's Ryan Campbell, the conference leader in face-off percentage coming in, was just 5-of-13 in the circle.
DeSimone equaled his career high for goals and recorded his fourth straight game with at least four points. That production may have been expected, but O'Donoghue's certainly was not. The senior defender's two first-quarter goals doubled his season total and gave him seven for his career; he also led the Bears with four caused turnovers.
Durst and Desenberg netted a pair of goals each, and Brown finished with a goal and and assist for the Bears.
Junior Zach Jones had two ground balls and caused two turnovers, while senior James Fairchild won 15 of 27 face-offs and scooped up nine ground balls. Senior Brian Neff, the CC leader in goals-against-average, was stellar between the pipes, racking up a dozen saves split between each half. Many of them were of the highlight-reel variety.
Ursinus held a 44-37 advantage in shots a 32-26 edge in ground balls in defeating the Red Devils for the fourth straight year. The Bears forced 11 Dickinson turnovers and committed just nine of their own, going 13-for-14 on clear attempts.
The Bears are averaging nearly 15 goals per game during their six-game streak, beating opponents by just shy of six goals a contest.
Ursinus takes a break from conference play with a trip to Eastern on Wednesday, April 6.
