Lafayette Edges Drexel in Easton, 8-7

Tuesday, February 20

Easton, Pa.

7:30 p.m.

Drexel University

1-1

Lafayette

2-1

DREXEL

Lafayette

Photo by: Greg Carroccio/Sideline Photos

2/20/2024 9:20:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

EASTON, Pa. – Drexel came up just short in an 8-7 loss at Fisher Stadium on a cold night in Easton. The Dragons (1-1) trailed by two in the fourth quarter and had a chance to tie it up in the final minute. Will Farrell's shot with just 30 seconds to play was saved by Joe Doherty to preserve the win for the Leopards (2-1)

Drew McGill had another solid game in the cage for the Dragons. He turned aside 14 shots, many from in tight. Witt Crawford had his first career hat trick for Drexel, while Zach Augustine had a goal and two assists.

John Mathes scored three times for Lafayette and Peter Lehman contributed three points.

Drexel trailed by two at the end of the third quarter but got back to within one at 7-6 when Augustine found Crawford all alone in front for his third goal of the night. That goal snapped a scoreless drought of almost 26 minutes for the Drexel offense. Less than a minute later, Lafayette's Charlie Cunniffe, standing behind the net, fed Jack Massotto all by himself in front of the cage to increase the margin to two. It stayed that way until Drexel scored on the man-up late. Conor Hooley picked up a rebound and scored his only goal of the night to trim the lead to 8-7 with 1:35 to play. Lafayette won the ensuing face-off but Luke Carden forced a turnover and Drexel got possession. The Dragons called timeout to set up a play, but Farrell's chance turned out to be the 17th save of the night by Doherty.

Lafayette held Drexel scoreless for the entire third period and took a two-goal lead. The Leopards scored twice in the quarter, both off of Drexel turnovers. The first came at the 8:52 mark when Lafayette picked up an errant pass in the middle of the field and raced down the field. Connor Freeman found Peter Lehman on the left wing and he rifled a shot home, giving the Leopards the lead. The score remained 6-5 until the final minute. This time, after a turnover John Mathes turned into the middle and fired a left-handed shot from less than 10 yards away with just three seconds left in the third, making it a two-goal game.

The teams played an extremely even first half. Each team had 12 shots on goal, won six face-offs and was 1-for-1 on the man-up. Both Drexel goalkeeper Drew McGill and Lafayette's Doherty made seven saves in the first half.

Crawford got the Dragons scoring started on the crease after a nice feed from Zach Augustine just 90 seconds in. Lafayette answered at the 12:06 mark on an unassisted score by Lehman. The teams would then exchange man-up goals making it 2-2. Sean Curcio found Luke Tomak for the Dragons score. Drexel went ahead late in the first quarter when Crawford tallied his second goal of the quarter. The redshirt freshman picked up rebound of a Farrell shot right on the doorstep to make it 3-2.

The Leopards got the lead back with the first two goals of the second quarter, but DU evened it up on a Max Semple score. The junior took a pass in the slot from Tomak and one-timed it past the Lafayette keeper. The Leopards took their fourth lead of the game when Liam Sargent dodged down the left side and bounced a shot past McGill. The Dragons answered just 46 seconds later when Gavin Kelly found Augustine seven yards in front and he fired a left-handed shot to even the score at 5-5. Neither team was able to score over the last 9:08 of the half as they went to intermission all even.

Lafayette outshot Drexel, 42-36, but lost the ground ball battle to the Dragons, 29-25. Drexel won 10 of the 19 face-offs, with Connor Beals winning seven of his 12 attempts.

The Dragons begin the home portion of their schedule on Saturday. UAlbany comes to West Philadelphia to take on Drexel at Vidas Field beginning at noon. That game will be shown live on Lacrosse TV.