Men's Lacrosse Cruises Past No. 17 Cortland

Men's Lacrosse Cruises Past No. 17 Cortland

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The No. 18 Ursinus College men's lacrosse reeled off seven unanswered goals spanning halftime to blow by No. 17 Cortland, 15-9, in the home opener at Patterson Field.

Five goals apiece by both junior Bobby McClure and senior Peter DeSimone led the offensive assault for No. 18 Ursinus (3-0), which rolled to its second victory over a nationally ranked opponent in as many tries. This one was far less stressful than the Bears' first two contests, which included a pair of fourth-quarter comebacks and a double-overtime thriller.

Ursinus' prolific duo ascended higher among the school's ranks with another impressive performance. On McClure's second goal of the game, he became the 12th Ursinus player to register 100 career points.

DeSimone continued his climb of the all-time school record charts, moving into third place in career goals with 93 and passing Jeff Ocampo '12. The lethal scorer also elevated to fifth in points with 141, eclipsing Jake Weber '15 in the process.

The Bears had the upper hand in the first quarter by a score of 4-2. Cortland, who was playing in their first game of the campaign and has played in the NCAA tournament each of the last 18 years, bounced back to score three goals to even the game at 5 with 3:36 left until halftime.

Ursinus went on a seven-goal onslaught from there to cruise to a stress-free victory after needing comebacks in the first two nail-biting contests of the season.

To give the Bears a 6-5 edge at intermission, McClure snuck a shot into the net with under three minutes to go in the second quarter. Building momentum off McClure's goal, the Bears came out strong in the third quarter as Ursinus controlled possession, camping out in the Red Dragons' defensive end for a majority of the frame. The hosts ripped 17 shots to just three for the Red Dragons in the game-changing third quarter that saw the Bears own a 6-1 edge on the scoreboard.  

Sophomore Hakan Atillasoy's lofted pass perfectly found McClure behind the net, who spun around the crease to score his 100th career point for the Bears less than a minute into the third quarter.

McClure powered a shot in at the shot clock buzzer at the 11:58 mark, and just shy of 50 seconds later, junior Sam Mutz bounced a low effort into the net for his first career goal with Ursinus.

DeSimone's third goal of the game found the back of the cage from close range, then a blast by Atillasoy put the Bears up 11-5 with 8:42 to go in the quarter. Sloppy passing by Cortland in its own end led to McClure converting the turnover into his fourth goal of the contest.

A minute later, Cortland put its first shot into the net since the second quarter when Joey Panariello ended the Red Dragons' third-quarter drought, but the Bears still held a strong 12-6 advantage into the last quarter.

Six seconds into the fourth, sophomore Aiden Baltz won the faceoff and passed to McClure for his fifth tally of the game. DeSimone buried his fourth goal of the game at the 9:33 mark.

Ursinus senior keeper Nick Kirk remained solid between the pipes for the Bears as he made 10 saves in the victory.

Early in the game, Terrence Haggerty drove around the net with a diving finish near the crease less than two minutes in to give the Red Dragons an early lead.

Senior Tim Carroll scored his first career goal to lead off the Ursinus scoring. Carroll sprinted from behind the goal to the side of the cage where he blasted his shot into the twine to even it 1-1 under five minutes into the game.

DeSimone stopped on a dime and let a low shot fly for a goal as he fooled the Cortland defenders into thinking he was continuing toward the net.

Junior Evan Scott powered a shot in from about 10 yards out to increase Ursinus' lead to 3-1 halfway through the first quarter. Cortland added a goal shortly after, but DeSimone's second of the game and 90th of his career was a blast from deep past keeper Jake Craybas to give the Bears a 4-2 edge after the first quarter.

Atillasoy opened the second quarter scoring when he spun past a defender to score a goal to get it to a 5-2 advantage.

The Red Dragons were held off the scoreboard for nearly 15 minutes until Haggerty's second score of the game from off a Bear turnover, 5-3, at 7:04. Cortland's Dean Riley added a goal before defender Brandon Croteau drove in and bounced one into the net to tie it with 3:36 until halftime.

Cortland keeper Jake Craybas stopped nine shots in the loss.

Ursinus had large advantages in shots (49-36), faceoffs won (17-11) and ground balls (35-27). Senior Brian Casey was 7-for-10 in the faceoff circle, and sophomore Aiden Baltz finished 10-of-17.

The Bears look for their third ranked win in the opening four games on Saturday when they take on No. 14 Christopher Newport at St. Paul's School in Brooklandville, Maryland at 2 p.m.