Lehigh Closes Out Sacred Heart
from press release
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Trailing 6-5 heading
into the fourth quarter, Lehigh completely dominated the final 15
minutes of play, outscoring Sacred Heart 4-0 as the Mountain Hawks
downed the Pioneers 9-6 on Saturday afternoon at the Ulrich Sports
Complex to win their third straight game. Freshman Dante
Fantoni led the Brown and White with a season-best five goals,
while senior Brian Bienemann handed out a team-high three assists
as Lehigh moves to 6-5 on the season. Sacred Heart received
three goals from Chris Casey as the Pioneers fall to 3-7 with the
setback.
“I was impressed with both teams today,” Mountain Hawks
head coach Kevin Cassese said afterwards. “I thought
both teams came out hard; this was a hard-fought game and Sacred
Heart is a very good team. They play good defense in front of
a terrific goal keeper. I thought we shot well today and he
kept coming up with big saves. All the credit goes to their
goal keeper and his coach.”
He continued, “I thought on our end that Will Scudder was an
absolute animal,” Cassese said in referring to the junior who
won 14-of-18 face-offs and scooped up eight ground balls.
“Our attack did a good job on the ride and created
opportunities for one another, which is critical when you’re
not scoring as much as you’d like.
Cassese then offered his thoughts on sophomore goal keeper Conor
Murphy who sent back 12 shots in his first start of the
season. “He picked it up today for us. He’s
continued to work hard and has been cheering Dan Carr on from the
sideline all season long and today he got his shot and made the
most of it.”
Lehigh out-shot the Pioneers 46-28 on the afternoon with sophomore
Adam Johnston taking nine of those attempts. Senior Kyle
Gentile had a solid all-around game for the Brown and White with
three ground balls and one caused turnover, while classmate Evan
Guerrero led Lehigh with three caused turnovers.
Tom Trgo did all he could in net for the visitors, sending back 18
shots on the afternoon, while Kenny Ushman led Sacred Heart with
seven ground balls and three CTs. Evan Morgan handed out a
team best two assists and Timmy Katz led the Pioneers with nine
shot attempts.
Katz scored the game’s first goal halfway through the opening
quarter and that proved to be the only score of the first 15
minutes. Casey put Lehigh in a 2-0 hole with his score at the
11:16 mark of the second but Fantoni cut it to a one-goal game when
he found the back of the net with 4:38 left before halftime.
Casey answered for the Pioneers less than a minute later to make it
a 3-1 game, but David DiMaria brought the Mountain Hawks to within
one goal with his score with 2:32 to play. Jon Flood closed
the scoring for the half with his goal at the 1:10 mark sending the
teams into halftime with the Pioneers ahead 4-2.
Cameron Lao-Gosney scored the opening goal of the third quarter as
Lehigh again was within one at 4-3, but Bryan Badolato answered for
the visitors with his seventh score of the season to make the score
5-3. Fantoni then took a feed from Lao-Gosney and found the
back of the net with 12:03 on the clock to bring Lehigh within one
score but Casey responded with his third goal of the day to make it
a 6-4 game. With 40 ticks on the clock Fantoni netted his
third score of the afternoon, sending the teams into the final
quarter with Lehigh down just one, 6-5.
Fantoni tied things at six with his 18th goal of the season with
9:51 on the clock in the fourth and less than 30 seconds later
Roman Lao-Gosney found the back of the net to give Lehigh its first
lead of the day at 7-6. Bienemann and Fantoni added insurance
goals in the final eight minutes as Lehigh earned his third win in
a row.
