In its first game of the season, the Lehigh men’s lacrosse team cruised past the New Jersey Institute of Technology 15-5 at the Ulrich Sports Complex on Saturday.
“I thought it was progress,” coach Kevin Cassese said. “You know, first game, once the lights go on for real you never know what you’re going to get. We’re just looking for a lot of consistency from our group right now. I thought we had it more in this one than we did in the previous two scrimmages, so that’s progress for sure.”
Lehigh had 11 different players score goals, including two-goal performances from sophomore attackman Andrew Pettit, senior attackman Matt Raposo, sophomore long-stick midfielder Craig Chick and senior midfielder Ian Strain.
Three different long-stick players scored Saturday as well in Chick, junior Danny Norris and sophomore Sam Shearin.
“The fact that we trust those guys on the crease with the big stick was pretty cool to watch,” senior captain Cody Triolo said.
Even with 15 goals on the day, the Mountain Hawks had 43 total shots, meaning that they converted less than half of their attempts.
“We got a ton of shots, but we didn’t can them,” Cassese said. “We need to make the most of those shots when we do get them, so I would say that’s probably the No. 1 thing coming off of today, we’ve got to shoot better.”
Triolo was pleased with effort of the team in its first game, saying that everyone on the team has bought into working hard to have the best season possible.
“It was good to get the first touch out there, the first game of the spring season,” he said. “We played hard, there’s definitely a lot we can do better, but we’re pretty happy with our first effort, and we’ll just go this week and work even harder.”
Freshman face-off specialist Conor Gaffney won 19 of 22 face-offs, shining in a position that the Mountain Hawks struggled in last year. Gaffney’s face-off percentage Saturday — 86 percent — was more than double their output last year of 33 percent.
Many young players had a chance to showcase their talents against NJIT, as eight starters were sophomores and freshman. Lehigh fields a young squad this year, something that has necessitated a bit of an adjustment period, Triolo said.
“With having a lot of young guys getting a lot of time right now, we’re trying to play fast, but we’re kind of in a hurry at times,” Triolo said. “So we’re kind of trying to figure out what’s the difference between playing fast and playing in a hurry, because obviously you don’t want to do the latter.”
On the defensive side of the ball, the Lehigh defense only allowed 13 shots from the NJIT offense. Sophomore goalie Chris Kiernan made eight saves.
The team totaled 41 ground balls and kept up a quick pace throughout the whole game, Cassese said. The Mountain Hawks go on the road for their next four games. Their next game is Feb. 11 against Jacksonville University while the next home game is a Patriot League game against Army on March 11.
“We’re just going to try and beat Jacksonville next week, and that’s the biggest thing on our docket right now,” Cassese said. “We’re not a mature enough team to be able to look too far ahead, so we just have to be focused on one game at a time, so right now we’re just focusing on Jacksonville. We saw some good things today and we’ve got a lot to build on, so we’ve got to see progress for next week.”
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