By Mel Barracato, Staff Writer
Senior attackman Jack Donnelly totaled 10 points on seven goals and three assists for the men’s lacrosse team in Susquehanna’s 11-8 win against Landmark Conference-rival Catholic on Thursday, April 19 in Selinsgrove, Pa.
With these 10 points, Donnelly matched the Landmark Conference single-game points record for an in-conference matchup. Both of his goals and assists for the day were career highs and his performance secured his 100th career point. Donnelly now totals 106 career points.
“Really, my points were a testament to the skill of my two attack partners, Colton Dick and Jack McLaughlin,” Donnelly said. “Without Catholic focused on them, I wouldn’t have been able to capitalize and score all those points.”
Senior goalkeeper Dylan Abplanalp also became the leader in the Landmark Conference for all-time career saves as his second save tied the previous record at 680. With his 18 saves against Catholic, his new record totaled 697 saves.
The first period ended with Susquehanna leading 4–3 and Donnelly netting the first three goals of the contest. The Cardinals answered with two of their own before Dick found the back of the net off a pass from McLaughlin to keep the lead. Catholic scored the last goal of the period with less than two minutes remaining.
Donnelly had a hand in every Susquehanna goal for the rest of the game.
He assisted Dick two minutes into the second period to increase the lead to 5–3. About two minutes later, the Cardinals fired one past Abplanalp to stay within one and trail Susquehanna 5-4.
Six more minutes went by until Dick and Donnelly came together to set up Donnelly’s fourth goal of the day and extend their lead to 6-4.
Donnelly assisted senior midfielder Josh Wesolowski’s second goal of the season with less than three minutes to go. Then with 30 seconds remaining in the half, McLaughlin found Donnelly who was able to capitalize on a man-up opportunity and bring the lead to 8–4 going into halftime.
Donnelly opened up the third period by scoring his sixth goal of the day off a pass from senior midfielder Lou Pillari. The Cardinals then answered with a goal of their own.
Dick and Donnelly teamed up for the next two goals as Dick scored his third of the day with about 10 minutes left in the third and then found Donnelly with less than four seconds remaining to put the River Hawks ahead 11-5 going into the fourth quarter.
The Cardinals scored the only three goals of the fourth period but could not overcome the deficit.
Wesolowski and junior midfielder Jake Fox had five ground balls each to lead the ground ball battle 39-32 over Catholic. The River Hawk defense was able to hold the Cardinals scoreless on eight manup opportunities. Fox also had a career-high of four caused turnovers and junior defender Pat Donnelly also had three caused turnovers.
With the victory, Susquehanna is now in a three-way tie for first place in the Landmark Conference along with Scranton and Elizabethtown.
The win also secured a playoff spot for the River Hawks for the second consecutive year.
“Going into the game, the team was focused on securing a home game for the Landmark playoffs,” Donnelly said. “At this point in the season, everyone knows their role and goes into each game focused on performing that role to the best of their ability.”
The River Hawks compete at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27 in Elizabethtown in their final conference battle of the regular season. The Blue Jays are currently 8-7 on the season and 4-1 in Landmark Conference play. Most recently, they suffered a tough 14–3 defeat to nationally ranked York College.
Prior to that, however, the team had won three straight games.
