Sophomore midfielder Cody Triolo tries to beat Army midfielder A.J. Canara on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at Banko Field. The Mountain Hawks lost 7-5. (Liz Cornell/B&W photo)
The Lehigh men’s lacrosse team lost its sixth game in a row, bringing its overall record to 2-7 on the year. Army managed to hold on to a lead in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game, beating Lehigh 7-5.
Lehigh battled in a defensive-minded game and scored two goals in 12th and 10th minute marks of the fourth quarter to make the score 7-5. But the Hawks failed to score for the remainder of the period, even when playing a man-up due to penalty calls on Army.
Lehigh senior attackman Patrick Corbett had two point blank shots in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, but Army’s goalie Sam Somers rejected both of them, helping the Black Knights hold onto its two-goal lead.
Army jumped to an early 4-1 lead and put constant pressure on the Lehigh defense throughout the game. Lehigh consistently scored goals, but Army would come right back down and score again.
“At the end of the day, it’s just not enough, we got to keep trying to figure out ways to win,” coach Kevin Cassese said. “We are coming real close, certainly closer than we did on a few early season games, but close is not good enough.”
Lehigh also lost a handful of faceoffs during the game, which gave Army quite a few more chances to score and really pushed the momentum for Army. Offsides and other various penalties hurt Lehigh’s ability to create chances to score.
The game was very physical with multiple checks and penalties.
“I thought today was a typical Lehigh-Army game in that it was an absolute slugfest and defensive battle,” Cassese said. “They came out with big ground balls, big face-offs and controlled the possession.”
Junior attackman Reid Weber stood out for Lehigh, notching two assists and picking up five ground balls for Lehigh in a scrappy hard-fought game. Corbett and senior attackman Dan Taylor also each had a goal.
Senior midfielder Kurtis Kaunas notched two goals in seven shots and picked up one ground ball in the loss. He provided a big spark in fourth quarter to try to even the score, but Army’s goalie made a couple key saves out of eight total saves on the day.
“We were trying to push the pace, get a lot of shots in,” Kaunas said. “We were down by two so we had to score twice to tie it up, so we were going to the goal hard. The shots just didn’t fall our way. They were really tough, and we had to win the point of attack today. Sometimes we did and sometimes we didn’t.”
Lehigh will look to break its losing streak when it faces Monmouth University on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
“(It’s) another opportunity to get better,” Cassese said of the upcoming game. “We’re starving for some sort of positives and especially try to fight for a win.”
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