BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's lacrosse team reached double digits in victories for the first time in program history as the Greyhounds defeated visiting Neumann University, 15-2, in non-conference action at Rocco Calvo Field Wednesday afternoon.
Moravian is now 10-2 on the season as the Blue and Grey are in their first varsity season since 2010. The Greyhounds played on the varsity level from 2004 through 2010 with six wins in 2005 as the previous high for the program.
"When you restart a program, you don't really expect to be successful and have a winning record," commented Head Coach Dave Carty. "We're beating teams that have at least four years of recruiting under their belts. It is a nice thing, and it shows how hard our guys are work and their dedication to getting better. I think we've gotten better every day, and this was a pretty complete victory today. We go to Goucher on Saturday, and that will be the tale of the tape because they are a quality program in the Landmark Conference that we'll be facing next year and it will give us a barometer as to where we are."
Freshmen attacks James Carroll and Mark Laratta each had five goals to lead the Greyhounds with Carroll adding an assist. Freshman attack Jack Gozzard contributed two goals and two assists while freshman midfielder Christopher Klodowski had a goal and an assist for Moravian. Junior attack Alex Hughes and freshman midfielder Dominick Gurreri each found the back of the cage once with Hughes scoring his first career goal while senior midfielder Dave Fiumara and freshman midfielder Alec Oriolo each had two assists. Freshman midfielder Hayden DuPont had one assist.
DuPont also won 7-of-10 face-offs and led Moravian with seven ground balls while freshman midfielder Rick Guerra won 6-of-10 face-offs to go with a pair of ground balls. Carroll contributed five ground balls while junior defender Ed Delia and freshman defender John Polich each scooped up four ground balls. Freshmen defenders Brian Biase and Zach Clifton both had three ground balls while Klodowski led the squad with two caused turnovers.
Moravian, which played all 25 players in uniform throughout the game, used all three of its goalies with freshman Kurt Dick starting and playing the first 38 minutes with seven saves and four ground balls. Junior Michael Smith played five and a half minutes with one save while freshman Trevor Bickel was in goal for the final seven minutes.
Carroll opened the scoring nearly two minutes into action, and Laratta netted hits first of the game with two minutes left in the opening quarter as Moravian led 2-0 after 15 minutes of action. After giving up a goal to start the second quarter, the Greyhounds would see both Carroll and Laratta score twice as the Blue and Grey headed to the intermission with a 6-2 lead.
Moravian scored all nine goals in the second half with four goals in the third quarter including a man-up tally by Carroll. The Greyhounds added five goals in the final 15 minutes with Hughes netting the final goal of the match.
The Hounds are slated to return to action on Saturday, April 16 when the squad travels to Goucher College for a non-conference match beginning at 3:30 p.m.
