Photo Courtesy of Hannah Grove
By Dustin Waleff, Sports Editor
The Susquehanna men’s lacrosse team’s season came to a close in the quarterfinals of the Landmark conference championship on Saturday May 1, falling to the Moravian Greyhounds 18-12 in Selinsgrove, Pa.
The Greyhounds used a 14-2 run spanning across the first, second and third quarters to put away the River Hawks.
Following a quick start by Susquehanna, which saw the River Hawks on top 4-0, Moravian found its footing and dominated play for nearly the next 30 minutes.
Down 4-0, and following a Greyhound timeout, midfielder Zach Bergeron got things started on the offensive side for Moravian, beating senior goalie Tyler Gross to spark the Moravian comeback and start the run.
During the 14-2 run, nine different Greyhounds would find the back of the net. Midfielder Nick Nolder, attacker Connor Hull, attacker Trevor Dzama, midfielder Shane Cassel, and midfielder Tim Dwyer all tallied one goal during the run, while Bergeron, who started the run, added a second, attacker Cade Siddron and attacked Connor James both collected two markers as well, with attacker Griffin Leblond collecting a hat trick.
Throughout the run, penalties played a big part, with five of the Greyhounds goals coming on the man up advantage.
“There were a couple of soft penalties that they capitalized on and got some momentum from,” junior attacker Logan Frank said. “We had two conduct penalties from our coaches that were locked in for two minutes which really put them on the run. Their faceoff guy and goalie also had big days which was critical. You can usually come back from one of those things, but bad penalties plus their specialty players having a great day is a recipe for disaster.”
Using the 14-2 run, Moravian was able to take a 14-6 lead midway through the third quarter, before the River Hawks were able to grab some of the momentum back.
Sprinkled throughout the 14 goals by the Greyhounds, sophomore Charles Braught IV and freshman midfielder Dominic Contella provided the two River Hawk goals.
With Suquehanna trailing 14-6, the River Hawks found the back of the net for four straight goals to cut the deficit in half.
Through the short run, Braught beat goalie Sean Demott for two more goals completing his hat trick, before Contella completed his, getting his third of the game, with the first coming during the opening 4-0 run to start the game, while senior attacker Colton Dick scored on the man up advantage.
50 seconds after Contella cut the deficit to four, Siddron completed his hat trick to push the lead back up to five, before sophomore midfielder Jake Turner completed his hat trick, with his first two goals coming in the first quarter during the 4-0, to make the deficit four again.
WIth the game still in the balance, Siddron, Leblond and James, put it out of reach for the River Hawks, pushing the lead back up to seven, before Dick added the final tally of the game, to bring the final score to 18-12.
With the loss, the River Hawks season came to a close, in the pandemic shortened season with a 3-6 conference record, finishing 3-8 overall.
Frank said: “We are young and talented. We are bringing in a very large class next year to spur up some more competition at practice, which should yield better play overall. The biggest thing to take away from this year is that our success in the conference is completely up to us. To win the spring, you first need to win the summer, fall and winter; that is exactly what we are going to do.”
Following the quarterfinals, the Landmark conference announced its men’s lacrosse all conference teams. Dick, along with senior defender Michael Jentsch Jr. would collect All-Landmark Second Team honors.
