SCRANTON, PA – The Susquehanna University men's lacrosse team's bid at an unbeaten Landmark Conference regular season was cut down Saturday in a one-goal decision at Scranton. The River Hawks overcame significant obstacles early after Scranton raced out to an early 3-0 lead and 8-4 ledger at halftime. Three consecutive fourth-quarter scores tied Susquehanna up with the Royals 9-9 late in the game, only for Scranton's Joe Boyle to offer the final blow with a score with 1:47 remaining in a 10-9 decision.
The defeat puts the River Hawks at 13-3 on the season and 7-1 in Landmark play, with one more conference matchup to be played next Saturday against Landmark-power Elizabethtown at home. Susquehanna has locked down a spot in the top three in the Landmark Conference standings alongside E-Town and Scranton, with this upcoming week's stretch of games to decide who will get a bye with the first and second seeds and a home quarterfinals game as the third seed, which will be played Tuesday, April 30.
Saturday marked the fourth time this season Susquehanna was on the short end of the faceoff battle, as the Royals won 13 to the River Hawks' ten.
Brennan Lorence tied for the game lead with three goals alongside Scranton's Alex Eglitis. All of Lorence's scores occurred in the second half to give the River Hawks a boost to overcome its four-goal deficit, including scoring both of SU's only two goals of the third quarter to cut Scranton's lead to 9-6 entering the fourth.
Kieran Thomas opened the final period with a goal to shrink the Royals' lead to 9-7 with 10:37, then Lorence officially tacked on a hat trick just over two minutes later to make the score 9-8. Just over five minutes went by before another score could be struck that could decide the game. In this case it was the River Hawks that tied things up when
Nick Remund knotted things up at 9-9. The next deciding factor, arguably, was the ensuing faceoff, which Scranton's John O'Connor won to bring the ball back down their scoring direction. About one minute later the Royals prevailed when Boyle scored what ended up being the game winner on an assist from Alex Eglitis.
SU goalie
Jozef Korpics tallied 14 saves on the day, even scoring a goal in the second quarter for his second straight game with a score. The River Hawks' remaining scores came one each from
Steven Musser,
Jack Gaillard,
Matthew Faggioli. Gaillard added one assist. The Royals scored eight first-half goals evenly split between the first and second quarters, only to be held to one goal each in the third and fourth. The Royals led in shots, 40-32, including 24-18 in shots on goal. Scranton's goalie Declan Allen picked up the win, gathering nine saves.
The River Hawks will host Elizabethtown next Saturday, April 27 as part of Senior Day in their regular season finale. Elizabethtown has one more Landmark matchup in between, hosting Juniata Tuesday at 7 p.m.
