By Peter Levine ‘16
The Leopard men’s lacrosse team hung around with the Colgate Raiders on senior day this past Saturday, but ultimately lost 14-10. In what was the final home game of the season for Lafayette, the Leopards held a 5-4 lead at halftime but allowed 10 goals from Colgate in the second half. The Leopards are now 3-9 on the season and 0-5 in Patriot League games.
Sophomores Brian Bock and Sonny Round led the Leopards offensively. Bock recorded two goals and two assists while Round scored two goals and one assist on the day.
The two teams traded goals fairly evenly throughout the first half. Colgate scored four quick goals in a row in the third quarter to break the cycle. This caused Lafayette to play from behind for the rest of the game, trying to catch up to the Raiders. Senior Greg Rau and freshman Kevin Wanke scored back-to-back goals early in the fourth quarter, pulling the Leopards to within two. However, Raider’s junior Brendon McCann scored two successive goals to end the game and secure the Colgate victory.
For Senior Day, six Lafayette seniors were honored before the game for contributing to the men’s lacrosse program over the past four years. The seniors included co-captains Anthony Zawadzki and Geoff Stearns. Zawadzki, a midfielder from Kings Park, N.Y., leads the team in winning 61 percent of face-offs this season. Stearns, a defender from Waccabuc, N.Y., has led the defense by causing 19 turnovers and has also fielded ground balls so far this season.
The Leopards will conclude their season tomorrow against Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks are ranked eighteenth in the nation and are currently 5-0 in Patriot League games (9-4 overall). Lehigh is coming off a decisive 11-7 win at number 9Bucknell last Friday in Lewisburg, Penn.
“We need to focus on being more mentally prepared as we tend to shoot ourselves in the foot with stupid mental mistakes,” forward Brian Bock emphasized.
Lehigh clinched the number one overall seed in the Patriot League Tournament, while Lafayette was eliminated from the tournament with their loss to Colgate last Saturday. Although out of playoff contention, the team effort will not relent this week.
“Even though we’re out of the playoff run, we’ve been practicing just as hard as any other week,” Bock said. “We plan on leaving everything out there as it’s our seniors’ last game. We owe it to them for what they have given to the program.”