April 11, 2008
BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Joe Mele (Westbury, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) broke open a tie game with three straight goals and Austin Winter (Boonton Twp., N.J./Mountain Lakes) had a goal and five assists to help the 11th-ranked Bucknell men's lacrosse team clinch a Patriot League Tournament berth with an 11-5 win at Lehigh on Friday night.
With the victory, Bucknell (9-2, 4-1 PL) reached the nine-win mark in back-to-back seasons for the first time in school history, and the team's nine-man senior class became the winningest in school history with 34.
More importantly, the win moved the Bison within a half-game of first-place Navy in the Patriot League standings. The sixth-ranked Midshipmen play at No. 17 Army on Saturday afternoon.
Tim Brandau (Owings Mills, Md./McDonogh) scored two goals and freshman Mike Danylyshyn (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) turned in his second straight three-point night with a goal and two assists.
Defensively, Bucknell limited Lehigh (6-8, 2-4) to only five goals on 19 shots. Goalie Nick Sciubba (Sea Cliff, N.Y./Salisbury School) made seven saves.
Bucknell also continued its recent outstanding faceoff play, winning 12 of 20. Rick Carolan (Wellesley, Mass./St. Sebastians was 10-for-16.
Bucknell, which came in ranked 11th in the USILA Coaches' Poll and 10th in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll, took an 8-3 halftime lead, with Winter assisting on five of the eight goals.
Lehigh took a 2-1 lead on Brian Bienemann's EMO goal midway through the first period. Danylyshyn scored his fifth goal of the year off a feed from Winter to tie it with 1:59 left in the opening period, then Mele scored three in a row to help the Bison take command.
He finished a Winter feed -- Bucknell had nine assists on 11 goals -- with 43 seconds left in the quarter to make it 4-2, then Brandau and Winter assisted on Mele goals in the first 3:06 of the second quarter. John Togneri (Longmeadow, Mass./Loomis-Chaffee) scored 1:06 later to cap the 5-0 run and give the Bison a 6-2 lead.
In the final four minutes of the half, Bucknell upped the margin to 8-3 on a man-up goal by Brandau and an even-strength marker from Perry Menzies (Upperco, Md./Hereford), both assisted by Winter.
Winter, who now has 12 goals and a league-high 25 assists on the season, scored one of his own 1:33 into the third quater, and the two teams twice traded goals in the third quarter.
Steven Cheng (Floral Park, N.Y./Floral Park) finished the scoring with a man-up goal in the final minute. Freshman Cam Seligmann (Essex Fells, N.J./Delbarton School) had the assist for his first collegiate point.
Bucknell outshot Lehigh 27-19, including 19-9 in the first half. The Bison also won the ground ball battle 29-25 and converted 15 of 16 clears. Bucknell was 2-for-7 with the extra man, while Lehigh was 2-for-5.
Winter's five assists marked his second-highest total of the season. He had six as part of a nine-point game against Towson on March 25. He also had a six-point game with two goals and four assists against Ohio State on March 1.
Mele recorded his fourth hat trick of the season, and he reached the 20-goal plateau for the third straight year. He now has 70 career goals.
The Bison have two regular-season games remaining, Tuesday at Penn State and Apr. 19 at home against Colgate. Bucknell still has a chance to catch Navy and gain a share of the Patriot League regular-season title but needs an Army win over the Midshipmen on Saturday and its own win over Colgate next week.
