COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – One of the most dominant defensive performances in program history, combined with some newly unleashed weapons on attack, powered the Ursinus College men's lacrosse team to a 10-1 rout of Albright on Sunday afternoon.
With the wind whipping all over Patterson Field, the Bears allowed only one goal for the fifth time in their history, and the first since a 7-1 win over Widener in 2013. Ursinus held Albright off the scoreboard for the final 46:30, just missing its fourth shutout.
Freshman Hakan Atillasoy scored twice and sophomore Luke Nachazel joined him in scoring his first career goal for the Bears (1-2). Sophomore Bobby McClure put up three goals for his fifth career hat trick, and senior Gerard Brown jump-started a 5-0 onslaught in the first quarter with the day's first two markers.
The Bears capitalized on a turnover to get rolling, as junior Sam Isola picked off a pass and fed ahead to Brown for the lid-lifter at the 10:11 mark of the opening quarter. Brown struck again a minute later for a 2-0 lead.
Atillasoy opened his collegiate account less than a minute after that, and McClure buried a rocket shot five seconds after that on a clean faceoff win and assist from freshman Aiden Baltz, who won 8 of 12 on the afternoon. Senior Lou Harrison's first goal of the season made it 5-0 with 5:05 still showing in the frame.
The scoring slowed down considerably from there. Albright got on the board with 1:30 to play in the first quarter, and Nachazel bulled through defenders for a long-pole goal with 3:30 remaining before halftime.
McClure had the only goals in the third quarter, using a pass fake to open up a high-to-low shot before taking a dish from sophomore Evan Scott and scoring at the right post.
Isola scored late in the fourth quarter before freshman Joe Mercurio set up Atillasoy for the Bears' first extra-man goal of the season with 30 seconds showing.
Baltz and Brown each collected eight ground balls for Ursinus, which owned a 40-15 advantage in shots and forced 24 turnovers, limiting the Lions to a 15-for-25 success rate on clears. Junior Nick Kirk totaled five saves before giving way to classmate Elliott Shevitz, who made three in the fourth quarter.
Freshman Rei Lopez won a faceoff in the fourth period, while fellow rookies Andrew Malicki, Joe Quintiliano, and Ian Vogt also made their collegiate debuts.
Ryan Aler finished with 11 saves for Albright, which got its goal from James Gorman.
The Bears head to New York to take on No. 7 Cortland on Friday, which opens a challenging stretch of three top-10 foes in four games.