By Kirsten Hatton Staff writer
The Susquehanna men’s lacrosse team’s comeback attempt fell short as the River Hawks lost 9-7 to conference-foe Elizabethtown on the road on March 25.
Freshman attacker Preston Ouellette tied the game at seven late in the fourth quarter, but Elizabethtown responded with two goals late in the game just 50 seconds apart to steal the win.
The game began with an early goal from the Blue Jays, but senior attacker Chet McLaughlin responded less than one minute later with a goal to tie the game at 1-1.
Elizabethtown scored two more goals to lead the River Hawks 3-1 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter began with a goal by sophomore midfielder Erik Lanyi to bring the River Hawks within one, but the Blue Jays scored again, to lead 4-2 at halftime.
The second half of the game began with another goal from McLaughlin, but the Blue Jays responded with two more goals within a minute of each other to make the score 6-3.
Junior midfielder Alec Tzaneteas etched further into the Blue Jays lead at the end of the third quarter to make the score 6-4 Elizabethtown.
The final quarter began with another goal by Tzaneteas to put the River Hawks within one goal at 6-5.
Elizabethtown scored again a minute later to push the lead to 7-5.
Tzaneteas scored again to put the River Hawks within one once more, with a score of 7-6. He finished with three goals and two assists for the River Hawks.
Sophomore goalie Dylan Abplanalp finished the game with six saves.
Ouellette scored with five minutes remaining to tie the game, but two more goals from Elizabethtown with less than four minutes to go secured the 9-7 victory for the Blue Jays.
Ball security was one of the big issues for the River Hawks, as they ended the day with 22 turnovers, which tied the team’s season high.
“As a team, we can take away from this game our lack of ability to handle pressure on the offensive end. I think if we handled their pressure better we wouldn’t have had so many turnovers and would have probably come out on top,” junior attacker Andrew Porzio said. “This is something we will work on and get better at so the next time we face a team that likes to pressure out we will be more prepared for it.”
Elizabethtown improved to 6-3 on the year and 2-0 in the Landmark, while Susquehanna dropped to 7-3 and 0-1 in conference play. It was the second loss in a row for Susquehanna.
The River Hawks are back in action Saturday, April 1 at Sassafras Field as they hope to get back to their winning ways when they take on Moravian at 1 p.m.
Moravian currently has a record of 3-3, including a 10-5 loss to Elizabethtown in their only conference game.
