By Mel Barracado Staff writer
Four different River Hawks scored as Susquehanna’s men’s lacrosse team fell to Catholic 9-4 at home on April 8.
After trailing by two goals at halftime, the River Hawks were not able to overcome a 5-goal deficit in the second half.
The loss put the River Hawks at 1-2 in the Landmark Conference and 9-4 overall, while Catholic improved to 3-0 in conference and 11-1 overall.
The Cardinals got on the board first, scoring the lone goal of the first quarter.
Catholic netted two more goals in the second quarter before sophomore attacker Jack Donnelly found the back of the net in the second quarter with 6:31 remaining to play.
The teams traded goals as senior midfielder James Harabedian added the River Hawks’ second goal to finish the scoring for the first half.
“We felt pretty good at halftime,” Head Coach Stewart Moan said.
“We felt we had some good opportunities in the first half that we didn’t capitalize on, but we didn’t play as well in the second half as we would have liked to.”
Junior midfielder Alec Tzaneteas scored off a pass from sophomore midfielder Jake Smolokoff to open up the scoring in the second half, only to be answered by three Catholic goals to finish the third quarter and two more in the fourth.
Junior attacker Andrew Porzio finished the match scoring late in the fourth off a Tzaneteas pass with 12 seconds left in the game.
“I thought we played well defensively and I was pleased with the effort down there,” Moan said.
Junior midfielder Pierce Mead led the defense with seven groundballs and sophomore defender Dan Murphy caused four turnovers.
Susquehanna had 10 penalties, which attributed to Catholic’s opportunities to score on the defensive end.
“We’re committed to play an aggressive, physical game and sometimes you get a few penalties when you make a statement like that,” Moan said.
Sophomore goalkeeper Dylan Abplanalp tallied 14 saves with seven in each half.
“Dylan’s had a great season,” Moan said of last year’s conference Rookie of the Year. “He’s improved from last year, which is great. One of his biggest strengths is his consistency.”
Catholic outshot Susquehanna 35-28, but the River Hawks had nine draw controls to the Cardinals’ seven. Susquehanna also picked up 26 ground balls to Catholic’s 22.
“It’s another game that our guys can learn from,” Moan said. “Every game there are things to learn for the next one.”
Susquehanna will play an important conference game as they take on Goucher on Saturday, April 15 in Maryland.
The last matchup between these two teams occured in April 2016, when Susquehanna ran through the Gophers en route to a 14-7 victory.
In that game, Tzaneteas and McLaughlin each netted four goals, while Abplanalp recorded 10 saves in the cage as part of his freshman season.
The River Hawks then return home on April 22 for senior day against Scranton.
Susquehanna is currently in fourth place in the conference, a half game behind Scranton for third place. Elizabethtown is in first place in the conference with a 5-0 mark in Landmark Conference play.
