Men's Lax Rally Comes up Short as Bucknell Defeats Drexel, 12-11

Tuesday, March 13

Vidas Field

4:00

Drexel University

Bucknell

Men's Lax Rally Comes up Short as Bucknell Defeats Drexel, 12-11

3/13/2012 6:00:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Philadelphia, Pa. – Drexel scored a pair of goals in the final two minutes, but came up one short in a 12-11 loss to Bucknell at Vidas Field on Tuesday afternoon. The Dragons trailed by as many as four goals on three occasions and fought back before losing their fourth one-goal game of the season. Bucknell improved to 3-3, while Drexel dropped to 2-5.

The Dragons got themselves into a big hole early in the game. Bucknell scored the first four goals of the game to take a 4-0 lead late in the first quarter. Nick Gantsoudes had the first two goals of the contest, both unassisted. At the 6:27 mark, Todd Heritage fired a shot past Mark Manos, giving the Bison a three-goal lead. Heritage then set up David Dickson for the fourth goal. The Dragons finally got on the board when Aaron Prosser beat Kyle Feeney to make it 4-1. Each team added a goal in the quarter, with Billy Eisenreich scoring for the Bison and Ryan Belka for the Dragons to make it 5-2 after a quarter.

Bucknell opened the scoring in the second on another Dickson goal, but the momentum swung towards Drexel the remainder of the quarter. Ben McIntosh had a pair of goals sandwiched around a Kyle Bergman score as the Dragons got back in the game. Bucknell's Tom Black stopped the bleeding for a moment, but Drexel scored the final two goals of the period to tie the game at 7-7 heading into the half. Bergman had his second of the day and Devin Thomas picked up the tying goal.

Bucknell's Chase Bailey opened the second half scoring, putting the Bison up 8-7. That lead lasted less than two minutes as Robert Church set up a pair of goals. The first was to Prosser and the next was off a scramble to Andrew Vivian. The Dragons looked as if they were about to turn the ball over, but Bergman fired the ball from midfield to Church, who sent in Vivian alone giving the Dragons what proved to be their only lead of the game.

Bucknell took control of the game right back with four goals in a row which put the Bison ahead, 12-9. Eisenreich had two of the three goals in the run. Heritage had the other as he stood in front of the cage, fought off a defender and put a one-timer he received from Bailey past Manos. The Bison had a two-man advantage with just under four minutes to play and decided to milk the clock instead of trying to score. After the Drexel penalties expired, Drexel regained possession and Ryan Belka scored to cut the lead to 12-10. The Dragons won the ensuing face-off and got the ball to Prosser who completed the hat trick with just 51 seconds to play. At the “x”, the Dragons won the face-off, but Bergman's shovel pass was picked off by a Bison defender and Bucknell killed the clock. Drexel did get the ball back with less than 10 seconds deep in its own territory, but was unable to get into the box.

Drexel dominated the numbers but came up on the short side of the scoreboard. The Dragons doubled up the Bison in the shot department (54-27) and had 40 ground balls, to just 16 for their opponents. Prosser finished with three goals and two assists. Belka, just a freshman had two goals and two assists. Thomas won 13 of his 21 face-off attempts and finished with a team-high nine ground balls. Manos had seven saves in the cage.

Eisenreich had three goals and five points to lead the Bison. Dickson and Heritage each finished with a pair of goals and assists. Sam Grinberg came off the bench late in the second period to take over for Kyle Feeney and played well. He had 11 saves, including a few on the doorstep.

The Dragons are on the road in their next contest. They visit Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Md., next Saturday afternoon.