NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – A slow third quarter doomed the 19th-ranked Ursinus Men's Lacrosse team as they were defeated 16-5 by No. 4 Christopher Newport on Wednesday afternoon in non-conference action.
With the loss, the Bears fell to 2-2 overall as they began a stretch this week of facing top-five ranked teams. Meanwhile, the Captains improved to 6-0 overall.
The Captains scored on their first shot of the game and took an early 1-0 lead at the 14:23-mark of the first quarter. Ursinus responded just under three minutes later to make it 1-1 by taking advantage of a man-up opportunity when junior Jeremy Calabro scored off a feed from junior Tyler Neal. Christopher Newport wasted little time to take the lead back at 2-1 with 10:16 left in the first quarter and had multiple good chances stopped in the next couple of minutes by Bears sophomore goalkeeper Jonathan Singer. The Captains added to their lead at the 1:31-mark after being already set up on offense following a penalty from the Bears. Christopher Newport then scored with 20 seconds left in the first quarter following a Bears turnover. Senior Tommy Reinhart ended the Bears scoring drought at the 11:43-mark with a goal to make it a 4-2 contest. Once again the Captains wasted little time to their lead as they scored to make it 5-2 just 1:07 later. Ursinus continued to hang tough in the first half with Christopher Newport when junior Jake Ojert scored at the 4:03-mark to cut the lead down to 5-3. However, the tide began to turn when the Captains added two goals in the final 1:07 of the first half and went up 7-3.
The two goals to end the first half started a nine-goal run for Christopher Newport as they shut down the Bers in the third quarter and went up 14-3. Freshman Christopher Pucciarelli scored the Bears first goal of the second half at the 12:50-mark of the fourth quarter before Jake Ojert added one last goal for the Bears at the 4:05-mark.
Christopher Newport held a 56-30 advantage in shots for the contest and held a slight 50-33 advantage in ground balls. The Captains held a 16-9 edge in faceoff wins and forced 23 Ursinus turnovers. Singer suffered the loss after making 16 saves in her full 60 minutes while Captains goalkeeper Zach Hanway earned the win after making 10 saves in 55:55. Jake Ojert led the Bears with a pair of goals while Neal posted three assists
The Bears return to action on Saturday, March 12th as they will host defending National Champion and No. 1 team in the country RIT at 1 p.m.