Lehigh Gets Gritty, Topples St. Joseph's 7-6
from press release
PHILADELPHIA – Lehigh earned a
hard-fought 7-6 victory over Saint Joseph’s in the Mountain
Hawks’ 2010 season opener on Sunday afternoon. The
game, which was played at historic Franklin Field, was originally
slated for Saturday but got re-scheduled due to the recent
snowstorm. Lehigh jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on the
Hawks and led 4-2 at halftime, but the Mountain Hawks found
themselves down 6-5 in the second half before rallying for the 7-6
win. Sophomore Adam Johnston completed a hat trick with his
game-winning goal in the final three minutes of play off an assist
from freshman David DiMaria to move Lehigh to 1-0 in 2010.
Saint Joseph’s falls to 0-2 following the setback.
“If you take a look at our hustle stats from today, we
outshot our opponent, we out ground-balled them and I thought we
carried the pace of play for the entire game,” Lehigh head
coach Kevin Cassese said afterwards. “We battled back
in the fourth quarter; I think we proved we could win the game in
the first three quarters and we went out and showed it in the
fourth. Give a lot of credit to Saint Joseph’s.
Their zone defense baffled us. We are an inexperienced
offense and it showed today.”
Cassese then singled out several Mountain Hawks who played
impressive games on Sunday. “Will Scudder had a great
day for us. He took every face-off and did a terrific
job. Dan Carr had a strong game with a number of big saves
and in front of him I thought Evan Guerrero did a great job with
his play and setting the tone for the entire defense. We
received great leadership from Kyle Gentile all afternoon long and
David DiMaria was excellent in his first game.”
Lehigh returns to the field next weekend when the Mountain Hawks
head to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to face the nationally ranked
Tar Heels on Saturday, February 20. The opening face-off is
set for noon.
Cassese spoke of what Lehigh needs to focus on moving
forward. “Fundamentals are the name of our game.
When we make good decisions and we play our game, we are going to
be a tough team to play, but if we aren’t executing and
we’re not paying attention to detail we’ll be our own
worst enemy. We need to continue to work on all the little
things.”
