Photo by Bill Wood
By Stephanie Dowling
The Susquehanna men’s lacrosse team lost 11-7 against Lycoming College in their season opener on Saturday, Feb. 22 in Williamsport, Pa despite a hat trick from junior attackman Colton Dick,.
“Regardless of the outcome, we played well as a unit on both sides of the ball, especially for being such a young team,” Dick said. “Last Saturday was a great learning experience for the games to come as we look to build off our performance. We are shuffling some pieces around now but are starting to better develop our young guys who see significant minutes.”
Dick and senior attacker Michael Hatala scored the first two goals of the game before Lycoming came back with five unanswered goals.
Hatala was able to capitalize on the opportunity with the ball with one second on the clock to end the half down 5-3.
Freshman midfielder Victor Simone scored his first collegiate goal to make it a one goal game at the beginning of the third quarter, but Lycoming answered with the next two goals. Attempting to keep the game close, Hatala then had a man-up goal and tallied an assist for the River Hawks.
As Lycoming tallied three more goals, the River Hawks were only able to capitalize on one shot, ending the game with an 11-7 loss.
Senior goalie Josh Weaver made a career-best 17 saves in his first career start for the River Hawks. Senior defenseman Jake Fox led the defense with five ground balls and a caused turnover.
“On the defensive side, we needed to be more disciplined on our match ups and be more focused to not get beat and we need to be more aggressive to win the 50/50 balls,” Fox said.
“We have a very young team, but we are marking strives to the team we want to be,” he added. “On the defensive end, we are buckling in and coming together to be able to stand by our offense. Going into the weekend, we want to focus on doing the little things right so we can win.”
Next up, Susquehanna will look ahead to their home opener, which will take place this Saturday, Feb. 22 at noon against King’s College on Sassafras Field in Selinsgrove, Pa.