BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the season after starting the year with three straight victories as the Greyhounds fell to rival Muhlenberg College, 15-7, in non-conference action at Rocco Calvo Field Wednesday afternoon.
"We didn't play well and we lost our composure for a few minutes at a time but we're a very young team with a lot of freshmen playing a lot of minutes," stated Head Coach Dave Carty. "We scored seven goals against a Centennial Conference team. We have hard working and tough guys. We have just one recruiting class since the program just returned to varsity status this year so we're only going to get better as we add depth over the next few years, and the guys have a chance to play collegiate lacrosse."
Freshman attack Mark Laratta netted a hat trick to lead the Moravian offense while senior midfielder Dave Fiumara had two goals. Freshman attack Jack Gozzard contributed a goal and an assist while freshman midfielder Alec Oriolo had one goal. Freshman defender John Polich added an assist for the Greyhounds to go with three ground balls.
Freshman goalie Kurt Dick made a career-high 18 saves while junior defender Ed Delia led the Hounds with four ground balls. Laratta added three ground balls in the match while freshman midfielder Rick Guerra was 7-of-13 on face-offs.
The Mules jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Fiumara got the Blue and Grey on the scoreboard at the 8:28 mark of the first quarter. Gozzard and Oriolo also scored in the opening 15 minutes but it was the Mules leading 6-3 after the first period. Muhlenberg netted the only four goals of the second period to lead 10-3 at halftime.
After an early third quarter tally by the Mules, Laratta netted a pair of goals and Fiumara scored once as the score was 13-6 after 45 minutes of action. Laratta cut the deficit to 13-7 early in the fourth quarter before Muhlenberg finished the scoring.
The Greyhounds are scheduled to return to action on Saturday, March 12 in a non-conference match at Alvernia University starting at 1:00 p.m.
