COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Facing a two-goal deficit early in the third quarter against Mary Washington, the Ursinus College men's lacrosse team flipped a switch and never looked back, holding the visitors scoreless for the final 27 minutes and reeling off six unanswered markers to post a 9-5 victory.
Freshman Peter DeSimone had two goals and two assists during the game-turning rally for No. 14 Ursinus (2-0), which came out on the top end of a seesaw battle with a scrappy Eagles squad thanks to a suffocating defensive turnaround and a diverse array of highlight-reel goals.
Sophomore Lou Harrison scored the game's first two goals in a span of 54 seconds, and he set up junior Conor Fitzgerald for another one to hand the home side a 3-1 lead. But the Bears went cold from there, and Mary Washington (2-2) took advantage with a four-goal run spanning halftime, seizing a 5-3 lead on a strike from Shane McKenzie at the 11:58 mark of the third quarter. Then came a patented Ursinus flurry, and the Eagles never recovered.
Sophomore Gerard Brown, the reigning Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Week, fed freshman Sam Isola with a beautiful cross-crease pass, and the rookie found the back of the net to slice the deficit in half. Momentum swung toward the Bears' side in a crucial sequence less than half a minute later, when Mary Washington's Miles Davis rang the crossbar with a rocketed shot. Senior Patrick O'Donoghue collected the rebound and looked up-field for classmate Logan Panaccione, who passed across the crease to the right post for DeSimone, and the freshman made no mistake in burying the equalizer.
Ursinus took control from there. Junior Matthew Cioeta went top shelf for his first goal of the season, giving the Bears a 6-5. Six minutes later, Panaccione wowed the home crowd with a jaw-dropping goal. The senior caught a pass from DeSimone on his right side and, in the blink of an eye, went behind his back to beat stunned Eagles keeper Sam Wasson and make it 7-5 in favor of Ursinus. Thirty-six ticks later, Brown somehow got a pass off to DeSimone while falling down, and the freshman buried a top-shelf laser to give the Bears a three-goal lead in the final minute of the third.
DeSimone set up Fitzgerald's goal with 5:29 to play, closing the book on a thoroughly impressive second half.
Harrison recorded two goals and an assist for the first points of his collegiate career, and Fitzgerald notched his first career multi-goal game. Brown handed out two assists to give him a league-high seven in the season's first two games.
O'Donoghue turned in a sparkling defensive effort, racking up ten ground balls and causing three turnovers; the ground ball total was the highest single-game effort by a Bear since Shawn Caven scooped up 12 in a 2014 game at Muhlenberg. Senior goalkeeper Brian Neff stonewalled the Eagles after halftime, allowing only a single shot past him over the final 37 minutes and change. He finished with 11 saves, seven of them in the second half.
Noah Dewey and Mike Marson scored twice each for Mary Washington, which got eight saves from Wasson. Eli Ayer was 10-of-18 on face-offs and piled up eight ground balls.
The Bears held a 35-23 advantage in shots and a 34-22 edge in ground balls.
Two home victories in their pocket, the men's lacrosse team embarks on a three-game road swing, starting with a date at Frostburg State on Saturday, March 5.