ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - The Hood College men's lacrosse team dropped a 21-8 final on the last day of the regular season at Eastern in Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth play.
Inside the Box Score
- Robbie Wiley (York, Pa./Central York) scored three times to lead the Blazers.
- Jay Lanigan (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) had two goals and Aden Seivert assisted on a pair of scores.
- Alex Dudziak (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) made 18 saves in 47 minutes before giving way to Calvin Morris (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) for the final 13 minutes.
- John Sanick (Catonsville, Md./Catonsville) caused three turnovers, while Evan Hayek (New Market, Md./Oakdale) had four ground balls.
- Garrett Hitchens (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) went 10-for-22 on faceoffs and scooped five ground balls.
How it Happened
- Aidan Gilsdorf (Frederick, Md./Gov Thomas Johnson) started the scoring with a goal less than two minutes into the game, but back-to-back scores from Nicholas Fanelli put Eastern in front 2-1 with 10:20 left in the first quarter.
- Hitchens won the next faceoff, thanks to a ground ball from Brendan Smith (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown Area Senior High School) and 50 seconds later Sievert found Austin Palmer (Marlboro, N.Y./Marlboro Central) to tie the game. The Blazers reclaimed the lead midway through the period when Owen McDermott (Wernersville, Pa./Conrad Weiser) fed Lanigan at 8:07 to make it 3-2.
- Christopher Fanelli scored twice for Eastern before Nicholas Fanelli's third gave the Eagles a 5-3 edge heading into the second.
- Eastern's Nathan Gilbert was called for tripping and Wiley scored with a man-up at 12:36 to pull Hood back within one. The Blazers offense did not score again in the half, while the Eagles added three more, including a score by Gavin Stark with 39 seconds left to make it 8-4 at the half.
- Hood opened the scoring for the third straight quarter when play resumed. Luke Harned (Frederick, Md./Walkersville) caused a turnover, and, on the Blazers' second shot of the possession, McDermott took a pass from Seivert and scored to cut the deficit to 8-5 with 11:31 on the clock.
- Starting with an Avery Porter goal at 9:20, the Eagles scored twice in 24 seconds to jump in front 10-5. Eastern stretched the run to four-straight goals before Wiley scored again to get Hood within 12-6 at the 5:46 mark.
- A Hood penalty allowed Ryan Drobnick to start a three-goal flurry for Eastern, who jumped ahead 15-6 after Jason Poole scored with 3:41 left in the period.
- Lanigan and Wiley tried to stop the momentum with back-to-back goals to cut the Eagles' lead to seven before Connor Brachman gave Eastern a 16-8 lead at the end of the quarter and began a 6-0 run to end the game. The Eagles' last four goals all came via Hood penalties.
Analysis
- The Eagles outshot Hood 61-24 and caused 20 of the Blazers' 26 turnovers.
- Eastern held a 44-33 edge in ground balls.
- Hood committed seven penalties in the match, including six in the second half.
For the Opponent
- Nicholas Fanelli had three goals and seven points for a 10-point performance.
- Porter finished with four goals and an assist, while Poole scored three times.
- Connor Evans made seven saves.
- Brady Palmer caused five turnovers.
Notes
- Hood closes the season with a record of 9-7 overall and 3-5 in the MAC Commonwealth. It is the best overall record for the program since finishing 2019 at 10-5.
- Eastern improved to 9-8 and 6-2.
