Loyola men’s lacrosse team edges Lehigh 11-10

The Loyola University (Maryland) men’s lacrosse team used a 4-0 run over a 16:06 span late in the second half to pull away for an 11-10 victory over Lehigh Saturday at the Ulrich Sports Complex.

Senior midfielder/attackman Billy Oppenheimer scored with 5:55 left in the third quarter to give the Mountain Hawks their biggest lead of game at 9-7, but they scored just once more over the next 21 minutes as Loyola overcame them for the win.

Lehigh had the ball in the offensive zone with 1:23 left in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie the game. However, a shot by senior midfielder Alex Eaton was saved with 50 seconds left and the Hawks never got the ball back.

The game started to break down as both teams began heckling each other, which ultimately led to four penalties being called in one play with only 13 seconds remaining, highlighted by a rare three-minute non-releasable crosscheck penalty on senior attackman Reid Weber. The penalty was Weber’s only low moment of the day, though, as he led Lehigh with four goals, one assist and three ground balls.

Cassese said he was more disappointed by the actual loss than all the penalties at the end. It was Lehigh’s closest loss to Loyola since it joined the Patriot League three years ago.

Senior midfielder Ray Mastroianni also was an important contributor to Lehigh offensively, netting a pair of goals, his second multi-goal game of the season.

Snow fell throughout the whole game despite it being the second week in April, but it didn’t make the game sloppier than usual. Lehigh committed just nine turnovers to Loyola’s 10, tied for the Hawks’ least amount of giveaways in a game this year.

The Hawks will return to action on Tuesday and will travel to face Princeton University at 7 p.m.

Top Five Stats

1. Lehigh has never beaten Loyola in men’s lacrosse in school history. With the win today, the Greyhounds move to 11-0 over the Hawks.

2. Six of Lehigh’s eight goals against Loyola last year were from seniors. This year, eight of Lehigh’s 10 goals were from seniors.

3. Lehigh’s last four opponents were against teams that were nationally ranked at the time. Loyola was ranked No. 13/15 going into Saturday’s game.

4. Weber recorded his 18th hat trick of his career, seven of which have come in 2016.

5. Sophomore midfielder/attackman John Mehok recorded his first career assist, a pass to Oppenheimer that gave Lehigh its largest lead of the game.

Rapid Reaction

Kevin Cassese: “We’ve shown this entire year that if we play well we can play with anybody, and if we don’t play well we can get blown out by anybody. We battled hard and hopefully it gives our guys some confidence as we move ahead to the next games, they’re going to be very tough.”

Ray Mastroianni: “Any game in the Patriot League is going to be a dogfight, so we knew that coming in. We knew we had to bring the intensity right from the get-go. Any game you have to be ready to fight.”