COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College men's lacrosse team's home opener ended on a sour note with an 11-6 loss to Mary Washington on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Juniors Peter DeSimone and Sam Isola scored two goals apiece for the Bears (0-2), who dropped their first home game for the first time since 2009.
Despite outshooting the Eagles (3-1) by a 28-16 count in the second half (14-4 in the third quarter) and winning 13 of 21 faceoffs, Ursinus was undone by 21 turnovers and an inaccurate attack. The Bears put just 15 of their 40 shots on frame and failed to convert an extra-man opportunity for the second time in as many games this season.
Senior Ian Desenberg opened the scoring with his 70th career goal at the 8:28 mark of the first period, and DeSimone answered Owen Dingman's tally with an impressive one of his own, splitting a pair of defenders and switching to his right hand for an overhand goal to make it 2-1 with 4:33 to go.
But the Bears' offense went dormant for the rest of the half, allowing Mary Washington to run off three unanswered goals and take a 4-2 advantage into the break.
Ursinus came out of intermission with a fury, getting a goal back from DeSimone and firing off nine shots in the first six minutes of the third quarter. Three were saved by Billy Senicola, and another by freshman Hakan Atillasoy hit the post, and the Eagles regained a 6-3 lead with back-to-back goals before Isola finished a feed from senior Gerard Brown to make it 6-4 heading into the fourth.
Sophomore Bobby McClure got the Bears a quick one to open the last frame, putting one past Senicola on an assist from freshman Joe Mercurio – his first career point – to trim the Eagles' lead to 6-5 just 33 seconds into the quarter.
Owen Dingman found the back of the net less than a minute later, and Chris White tacked on another before Isola's second of the day made it 8-6 with 9:17 to play. Ursinus was unable to score again, and Mary Washington added three more to its ledger to put the game away.
Dingman tossed in four goals with an assist for Mary Washington, while Shane McKenzie reversed that stat line in a facilitating role. Senicola finished with nine saves for the Eagles, who were 3 for 4 on man-up chances.
Freshman Aiden Baltz impressed again at the faceoff x, going 13 for 21 and controlling eight ground balls.
Junior Elliott Shevitz made eight saves in his first start of the season.
The men's lacrosse team is back home next Saturday as the Bears welcome Albright to Collegeville.