SELINSGROVE, PA - Susquehanna University's Wednesday-afternoon duel with Scranton offered many fireworks in another memorable matchup of two of the Landmark's best teams over the last few seasons. The River Hawks opened with a 3-1 lead on the defending Landmark champions in a high-scoring first half, though the Royals made a run of their own to lead 6-4. The game would be tied once more when senior Chris Ciccarello's game-tying goal marked the 100th of his career at 7-7. Scranton, though, scored once more before the end of the half and outscored Susquehanna 9-4 in the second half to take a 17-11 victory.

Ciccarello led Susquehanna with three goals on the afternoon, giving him 102 lifetime. Steven Musser and Kieran Thomas offered up two goals apiece and one each from Tyler Young, Reese Ackerman, Nick Remund, and senior defender Aidan Kennedy, who took it coast to coast for the third of his career. The River Hawks were unable to keep pace with a Royals team that at certain points in the game seemed to score at will. In several cases, the purple team responded to a Susquehanna goal by taking the ensuing faceoff and going the distance to fend off any rally effort. An example of this was after Ciccarello's milestone goal that tied things at 7-7 with 32 seconds left in the first half. Scranton scooped up the faceoff, opening the door for Brendan Donohue, who scored with three seconds remaining for an 8-7 halftime lead. Donohue proved to be a scoring threat all day with a game-high four goals, including opening the second half with a goal to open their lead to 9-7. Scranton had two more hat-trick goal scorers in Quinn Carson and Pat McCormack, while team-leading scorer Kyle Holmes added two goals, as did Jason Kozak. Carson finished with a game-high five points, adding two assists.

Another factor was the faceoffs, with Scranton winning 23 of the 32 duels in the circle, including all eight in the third quarter. Royals faceoff man John O'Connor stood in for 30 faceoffs, winning 21 of them. Susquehanna shook things up between Alexander Messina (0-of-7), Brandon Cash (4-of-10), Sergio Cohen-Chirinos (5-of-14), and Gabe Broome (0-of-1). The River Hawks did take advantage of two extra-man opportunities on the day, carried out by Remund in the first quarter and Musser late in the second quarter.

Susquehanna stands at 1-1 in the early going of its Landmark season and 8-2 overall as they are back home this Saturday hosting Moravian for more Landmark fare at 1 p.m. The River Hawks then have another key midweek Landmark game next, hosting Catholic Wednesday, April 2 at 5 p.m.