Lehigh men’s lacrosse starts slow and gets ousted by Bison

The roller coaster that was the 2015 Lehigh men’s lacrosse season has finally come to an end on the hands of a 13-8 loss.

In the quarterfinals of the Patriot League Tournament, No. 3 seed Bucknell University defeated No. 6 seed Lehigh (7-9, 3-5 Patriot) to move on to the semifinals of the tournament. The loss ends Lehigh’s 2015 season.

Junior attackman Reid Weber was the lone highlight for the team, scoring five goals and an assist in the loss. Senior attackman Dan Taylor scored a goal and two assists in what was his and the entire senior class’s last game of their college career.

The Bison jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Their lead never ducked below four goals for the rest of the game.

Bucknell led 7-1 early in the second quarter and Lehigh coach Kevin Cassese elected to pull freshman goalie Adam Sawicki, who had allowed seven goals and had only two saves. Sophomore goalie Donny Stires played the rest of the game, allowing six goals and making five saves.

The Hawks were hanging in the game after scoring early in the third quarter to cut the lead to four, but they still trailed 8-4. The teams traded goals back and forth for the rest of the half until the end of the game.

Late in the fourth quarter, sophomore midfielder Casey McAdam scored the first goal of his career after he picked up a ground ball in the front of the net.

Despite the loss, Lehigh led Bucknell 38-33 in shots and 32-27 in ground balls.

The team will graduate 12 seniors this season, six of which were regular starters. It will be the end of the Canadian Connection —the pairing of Taylor and attackman Patrick Corbett.

Lehigh finished the season with a losing record for the first time since 2011, where it also ended the year 7-9.