Lafayette's Dream Season Continues with Victory

from press release

LEWISBURG, Pa. - The season kept on rolling for the No. 11 Lafayette men's lacrosse team as they took down No. 18 Bucknell in a battle of two Patriot League powerhouses. Offense was the name of the game but it was the Leopards who came out on the winning side of a 16-15 decision.

Lafayette (6-0, 2-0) took down its second-straight ranked league opponent as the team was coming off a 15-8 win over No. 17 Navy just eight days ago. Nine different Leopards scored in the victory, led by senior Brett Djaha's hat trick, to remain undefeated on the season.

Leopard goalie Vinny DePasquale finished the evening with 10 saves. The Lafayette defense played a solid second half, allowing only six goals after surrendering nine in the opening two quarters. Face-offs also proved to make a difference, as Lafayette held a dominating 21-12 advantage.

It was a back and forth battle with neither team taking more than a three-goal lead. Stefan Bauer's second and final goal of the game with 2:13 on the clock marked the game winner in a critical fourth quarter in which Lafayette out-scored Bucknell 5-3.

Lafayette took its first lead with 9:36 remaining in the first quarter after Chris Ahern netted a goal off an assist from Colin Serling for the 2-1 Leopard advantage. The lead switched sides for the remainder of those nine-plus minutes before Serling capped off the first-quarter action with a goal at the seven-second mark to make it 6-5 Lafayette.

The Bison netted four goals to Lafayette's three in the second 15 minutes of action. They capped off the first half with two unanswered goals that spanned less than three minutes of play to knot the game at nine-all at the midway point of the contest.

The Leopards and Bison traded chances to start the second half, the Leopard opportunity coming from Tom Perini, while DePasquale made three clutch saves to open the third quarter.

Bucknell opened the second half scoring with three goals in the first seven minutes to take the 12-9 advantage.

As it has all year, Lafayette answered when Perini found Chris Palliser at the 2:41 mark to cut the Bison lead to 12-10. At the following face-off, junior Cesar Munoz forced a Leopard man-up opportunity.

The Leopards converted the EMO chance when Ahern notched his second goal of the afternoon, this time off an assist from Bauer and Lafayette was right back in the game, down 12-11 going into the fourth quarter.

Lafayette outshot the Bison 44-36, including 12-8 in the decisive quarter. The win handed the Bison (4-3, 0-2) a critical second loss in league action. Lafayette returns to action next Sunday in another matchup of nationally-ranked squads.

NOTES:
- Perini scored for the 20th consecutive game. His point scoring streak dates back to April 20, 2008.
-Lafayette's 6-0 start is the best in school history. The last time the program had a six-game winning streak was the 1985 season.
-LSN All-Access will have postgame coverage on GoLeopards.com later this weekend.