COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The No. 19 Ursinus men's lacrosse team gave No. 1 RIT all it could handle before ultimately falling 12-6 on a cold Sunday afternoon at Patterson Field in non-conference action.
With the loss, the Bears drop to 2-3 overall after playing their second team ranked in the top-five in the major Division III Lacrosse polls this week. Meanwhile, the defending national champion Tigers improved to 5-0 overall.
The Tigers got on the board at the 11:55-mark of the first quarter after initially gaining possession following a Bears turnover. RIT quickly extended the lead to 2-0 just a 1:35 later following a quick clear off a save. Despite the deficit, the Bears began creating long possessions and generating pressure on the Tigers net. Unfortunately for the Bears, RIT goalkeeper Drew Hutchinson stood up to the task early and made multiple tough saves on the Ursinus chances. RIT extended its lead to 3-0 at the 3:17-mark of the first quarter before making it 4-0 less than two minutes into the second on its first shot of the quarter. Junior Erik Ojert would end the Tigers run with the Bears first goal of the game at the 11:41-mark of the second quarter to make it 4-1. The Bears won the ensuing faceoff and had two shots saved again by Hutchinson, which turned into another goal for the Tigers following a quick clear. RIT continued their second big run of goals by adding two more over a span of 1:50 and took a 7-1 lead with 4:48 left in the second quarter. Junior Jeremy Calabro ended that run with a goal on the Bears next shot of the game making it 7-2, but the Tigers had a quick answer once again as they scored just 1:03 later to go back up 8-2 into halftime.
Ursinus sophomore goalkeeper Jonathan Singer came up with a big stop to open the second half and the Bears took advantage of a long possession to cut the deficit to 8-3 after junior Tyler Falco ripped a goal on the right side of the net. Ursinus had a shot hit the post on their ensuing possession and the Tigers took advantage of a Bears shot clock violation by re-extending its lead to six goals at 9-3 with 8:30 left in the third quarter. The Tigers used another quick clear to score another goal on the Bears at the 7:02-mark and make it a 10-3 contest before adding a third-straight goal at the 3:25-mark to take their largest lead of the game at eight goals. Sophomore Brett Wilkinson ended the run by scoring his first collegiate goal after muscling his way past a defender at the 1:52-mark of the third quarter. Junior Chase Rondeau followed just over a minute later with a goal to make it 11-5 after initially leading the Bears clear attempt. RIT scored on its first shot of the fourth quarter to go up 12-5 in the opening minute and senior Tommy Reinhart capped the scoring on the day with his first goal of the contest at the 8:52-mark.
The Bears held a 47-38 advantage in shots for the contest, but the Tigers held a 24-21 edge in shots on goal. Ursinus held a slight edge in ground balls at 30-29 and in faceoff wins at 12-9. Singer suffered the loss after making 12 saves in the full 60 minutes while Hutchinson earned the win following a stellar 15-save performance in the full time. Six different players scored goals for the Bears while Erik Ojert led the way with three points after adding two assists as well. Quinn Commandant paced the Tigers with five goals and Clifford Gatson posted five points behind three goals and two assists.
Ursinus returns to action on Wednesday, March 16th as they will travel to face Stockton at 4 p.m. in non-conference action.