The Lehigh men’s lacrosse team dropped its Patriot League opener to Bucknell, 12-11, in a back-and-forth heartbreaker Saturday afternoon at Frank Banko Field in Bethlehem.
Lehigh coach Will Scudder said the Mountain Hawks’ mindset going into the game was the same as always.
“Aggressive, disciplined and tough,” Scudder said.
He said the team’s push and transition on offense improved into the third quarter of the game when junior midfielder Luke Winkler scored back-to-back goals to kick off a stretch of five straight scores for the Mountain Hawks (2-3, 0-1 Patriot League) that gave them a 9-7 lead.
Bucknell junior midfielder Luke Brunner answered with a score at 11:04 in the fourth, and the Bison (5-1, 1-0 Patriot League) tied the game less than three minutes later when midfielder Sean Berrigan scored with 7:22 to go.
Lehigh first-year Finn Morgan gave Lehigh the lead once more, scoring his fourth goal of the game with 7:13 left to go in the contest.
With 4:33 remaining, Brunner scored again, this time on an extra-man goal, tying things up at 10.
With 3:54 remaining, Winkler scored his third goal of the game to give Lehigh a 11-10 lead that was short-lived. Just 40 seconds later, Bison first-year Sean Murray tied the game at 11.
Bucknell finally broke through to take a 12-11 lead on the eventual game-winning goal from senior attacker Will Hopkins.
While Lehigh fell short, goalie Kasey Heath kept the Mountain Hawks close, tallying 15 saves.
Heath said he was excited to play, but approached the contest with the mindset that this was just another normal game despite the high energy from both sides of the crowd.
He said that energy powered them going into the third quarter.
“Whatever happened in the first half, we moved on and we have another half,” Heath said. “So just getting the energy, especially back up to our teammates, and getting the bench riled up is really what brought us back.”
When it comes to adjustments going forward, Heath said the team could work on moving on from hiccups quicker.
“We have to come back and get a stop that next possession,” he said. “It’ll come very soon.”
Lehigh continues its conference schedule against Boston University on March 7.
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