Bellarmine Holds Off Detroit Mercy in Opener
from press release
Freshman Joel Matthews (St. Catharines, ON/Holy Cross) scored
four goals in his sparkling Detroit lacrosse debut and the Titans
led through much of the early going, but it wasn’t enough as
visiting Bellarmine came from behind to post a 12-8 victory on
Saturday afternoon.
The game was the first of the 2010 NCAA Division I lacrosse season
and was played before an enthusiastic crowd of 1,565 at the
Ultimate Soccer Arena in Pontiac.
“I thought it was obvious we’ve made huge strides since
last year,” said coach Matt Holtz, whose team went winless in
its first season of existence (2009). “We’re starting
almost all freshmen and sophomores and they’ll make some
mistakes sometimes, but it was a good experience for us and
we’ll get some wins along the way.”
Off a feed from freshman Chris Nemes (Novi, MI/Catholic Central),
Matthews scored the first goal of the season just 44 seconds into
the contest and, by the time junior Tim Lehto (Farmington, MI/North
Farmington) found the back of the net 12 seconds before the end of
the opening quarter, Detroit held a 5-4 lead.
The second stanza belonged to Bellarmine, though, as the Knights
scored five straight goals – two of them by Austin Bright,
who joined Shane Andersen in tallying a game-high three for BU
– before Matthews could register with 1:35 left in the half
to cut the Detroit deficit to 9-6.
As play continued, the young Titans showed they had one big
comeback left in them. Sophomore Scott Harris (Saline, MI/Saline)
tallied twice, once on an extra-man opportunity and once at even
strength, to pull Detroit within 9-8 with 1:29 left in the third
quarter. But Bellarmine responded twice before the clock hit zero,
and once more in the final quarter while holding Detroit scoreless
despite heavy pressure by the Titan attack, as BU salted away its
victory.
“We came out strong and I think we kind of caught them a
little off guard,” Holtz said. “They might not have
known about the strides we’ve made since last
season.”
Or the punch in Matthews’ stick, too.
“Joel will be a phenomenal player for us,” Holtz
complimented. “He must be a diamond in the rough or whatever
you call it, but we found him when he didn’t have a lot of
other offers and I’m excited to have him on our team.
He’s going to be a great player for us.”
Bellarmine (1-0) held a slight 34-29 advantage in shots, as UDM
freshman goalie A.J. Levell (Columbus, OH/Dublin Scioto) notched
eight saves in his first college game. Bellarmine maintained a
41-31 edge in ground balls.
Detroit (0-1) will return to action on March 7 when it hosts
Quinnipiac at Titan Field.
