WESTMINSTER, Md. – The Ursinus Men's Lacrosse team kept their mid-April momentum going today at McDaniel as they dispatched the Green Terror 16-10 on the road in Centennial Conference action on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Bears improved to 8-6 overall and 5-2 in Centennial Conference play as they picked up their fourth-straight win. Meanwhile, the Green Terror fell to 4-12 overall and 0-7 in Centennial action.
The Bears opened the game with a pair of turnovers on their first two possessions and the Green Terror cashed in on the second one to take the early 1-0 lead. McDaniel quickly added to their initial lead with a goal 29 seconds later following another faceoff win to go up 2-0. Ursinus finally got on the board at the 4:37-mark when junior Tyler Neal shook off his defender to cap a possession that last more than three minutes. Junior Tyler Falco knotted the game at two at the 1:40-mark after the Green Terror turned the ball over in the midfield. Sophomore Brett Wilkinson then gave the Bears their first lead of the contest at 3-2 with 22 seconds left in the first quarter after receiving a feed from classmate Eddie Newman coming from X. Junior Jeremy Calabro added to the Bears run a minute into the second quarter with his first goal of the game after classmate Jake Ojert launched a dart to him wide open in front of the crease. McDaniel ended the run with a goal at the 12:04-mark, but Calabro answered four minutes later off a man-up opportunity after catching a high pass from Neal on the left edge of the crease. The Green Terror cut the Bears lead down to 5-4 at the 7:08-mark making it a one-goal game once again. However, that would be as close as McDaniel would get the rest of the way. Ursinus closed the first half with three-straight goals and took an 8-4 lead into halftime. Junior Jake Ojert started the run with a goal after getting a pass from brother Erik Ojert following a restart of play. Senior Stephen Schoenborn followed with the next two goals 36 seconds apart.
Neal kept the Bears goal run going in the third quarter by scoring just 1:02 into the second half to make it 9-4 after a brilliant stick from the left side. Schoenborn then added his third of the game at the 10:44-mark and freshman Riley Yee capped the run after scoring seconds after winning the ensuing faceoff to bring the score to 11-4. McDaniel tallied back-to-back goals within 1:24 of each other to cut their deficit down to 11-6. Schoenborn prevented a further Green Terror rally with his fourth of the game at the 2:55-mark before McDaniel added another goal two minutes later to make it a 12-7 game headed into the fourth quarter. Wilkinson got the scoring going in the fourth quarter after threading the ball through the Green Terror goalkeepers legs at the 13:18-mark. Neal continued to add to the Bears lead by scoring back-to-back unassisted goals and freshman Christopher Pucciarelli polished off the win with the final Ursinus goal at the 7:51-mark of the fourth quarter.
The Bears held a sizable 69-36 shot advantage for the contest and gained a 33-14 shots on goal edge. Ursinus won the ground ball battle at 30-27 and held a 20-10 advantage in faceoff wins. Senior goalkeeper Chris Porzelt earned the win after making his second start of the season and made six saves during 37:46 of action. Sophomores Jonathan Singer and Vaughan DiBattista also saw action between the pipes for the Bears as well. Brighton Lorber suffered the loss for the Green Terror after making 15 saves in 45 minutes of action. Neal led the Bears offense with five points on four goals and one assist while Schoenborn matched him with four goals. Calabro netted three for the Bears in the win as well.
The Bears will return to action on Saturday, April 30th as they will wrap up the regular season against Gettysburg for senior day at 12 p.m.