The men’s lacrosse team fell 12-10 to Drexel University in Philadelphia on Tuesday after a fourth-quarter rally from the Dragons, giving the Leopards their first loss of the season.
Drexel (1-1 overall) dominated throughout the first quarter. The Dragons struck first at the 10:32 mark, kicking off a 3-0 stretch as the Leopards (2-1 overall) could not find the net.
The start of the second quarter looked just as promising for Drexel as the Dragons struck again at the 12:20 mark, extending their lead to 4-0. The Maroon and White responded with a rally of their own. A goal from junior midfielder Jack Irish started a 4-0 run in which freshman midfielder Nicholas Blalock scored two and classmate midfielder Joseph Duggan scored one.
“I think we’re a team that really feeds off the energy of the other players,” Duggan said. “We really start playing our best once we get a couple in there and the energy starts getting high.”
Momentum from the second quarter carried into the third as the Leopards continued their scoring streak. The first goal came from freshman attacker Joshua Heaney at the 11:22 mark for his first collegiate goal. Duggan followed suit with his second goal of the night less than a minute later.
Drexel broke the 5-0 run with a goal of its own, which the Maroon and White down as they went on another 3-0 run. Junior midfielder Aidan Kopen, junior attacker Nick Muller and freshman attacker Clifford Chapman all found the back of the net during this period to give the Leopards a 9-5 advantage.
“It just became like a battle and we happened to pull out a good run,” freshman defender Andrew Matarese said. “We expected that it was going to be a game of runs.”
The Dragons reignited in the fourth quarter, finding the net to cut the lead to three. Kopen responded in under a minute to regain the four-point edge. In under five minutes, however, Drexel rallied all the way back, scoring four goals to tie up the Leopards at the 7:28 minute mark.
The Leopard defense clamped up for the next two minutes following the run, but the Dragons broke through with a goal to give them the lead. With a minute and a half left in the game, the Dragons added an insurance goal and held on for the win.
“We got a little complacent,” Duggan said. “I think once they started to make a little bit of a run themselves, we kind of tightened up and tried to play to stop them, rather than just playing our own game.”
Junior goalkeeper Joe Doherty was occupied during the game, making a season-high 15 saves.
The Leopards are headed to Le Moyne College on Sunday for their last game before Patriot League play.
“Our biggest focus right now is just getting better every day, focusing on kind of the things we can control,” Matarese said. “Le Moyne will be kind of our last test to work our kinks out, and then we’ll be ready to fly around.”
