COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Trailing by three goals in the second quarter and still on the short end of a 4-3 halftime spread, the Ursinus College men's lacrosse team came out of intermission on a mission, rattling off ten straight goals bridging the end of the third period to secure a 12-5 Centennial Conference victory over McDaniel on Senior Day.
Sophomore Ian Desenberg scored four goals (all in the third quarter), senior Logan Panaccione had a first-half hat-trick, and sophomore Gerard Brown dished out four assists for Ursinus (13-2, 7-1), which went undefeated at home in the regular season for the first time in program history. The Bears now await a date with Franklin & Marshall in the CC semifinals on Wednesday, May 4.
McDaniel (3-12, 1-7) came to Collegeville with just one conference win in tow, but it hardly showed for the first 18 minutes, after which the feisty Green Terror held a 4-1 lead on a goal by Quinn Lykens at the 12:16 mark of the second quarter. But the 18th-ranked Bears turned up the heat from there, holding the visitors scoreless for almost 30 minutes of game time and finally flexing their muscles out of the halftime break.
Ursinus scored six unanswered goals in the third quarter, the first courtesy of senior Steve Mussoline, who fought off a pair of defenders and bounced a shot past McDaniel goalie Eric Ritchie, who made 11 saves in the first half and 19 overall. Brown facilitated the strike that put the Bears on top for good, collecting the rebound off a Ritchie save and setting up Desenberg for a long-range snipe, the first of the sophomore's four third-period markers.
Now leading by a goal, Ursinus tripled the advantage in the blink of an eye, scoring twice in five seconds to stretch the spread to 7-4. Mussoline cashed in on a man-up situation, and senior James Fairchild won the ensuing faceoff and dished off to Desenberg, the sophomore roofing a low shot into the back of the net to hand Fairchild the first assist of his career.
Desenberg tacked on a pair of top-shelf rockets before the end of the period, the second on a feed from junior Matthew Cioeta, to give the home side a 9-4 lead heading into the final 15 minutes. Cioeta set up a goal by freshman Peter DeSimione a minute into the final frame, then scored one of his own 57 seconds later to polish off the Bears' 10-0 spurt. The Green Terror finally ended a nearly half hour-long scoreless drought on a strike by Jason Lawrence, and Brown capped the scoring by fighting off a slash and sending one past Ritchie with 8:21 to play.
The Bears got contributions up and down the lineup, plenty of the production coming from its 13-man senior class. Patrick O'Donoghue matched Fairchild with a game-high five ground balls and caused two turnovers, and G.B. Harkins had a caused turnover in addition to his customary lockdown defense. Anthony Torello and Mike Durst collected two ground balls each, Mussoline finished with two goals, and Steve Ambs scooped up the first grounder of his career in the closing moments. Fairchild went 14-for-20 on faceoffs.
Neff, Ursinus' two-time All-American goaltender, made nine saves before giving way to freshman Nick Kirk with 2:45 remaining.
Brown's four assists gave him six games with at least three this year, and he finished the regular season with a program-record 35. Panaccione's hat-trick was his third of the season and the 10th of his career
Ursinus outshot McDaniel by a 44-35 count, including 26-13 after halftime, and held advantages in ground balls (29-25) and faceoffs (14-7).
The Bears are the No. 2 seed in the CC championship tournament for the second straight season. They'll meet Franklin & Marshall on Wednesday night, with top-seeded Gettysburg facing off against first-time playoff entrant Swarthmore in the other semifinal. The winners will meet on Saturday, May 7, at the site of the highest remaining seed.
