BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Freshmen midfielders Dominick Gurreri and Alec Oriolo both scored in the final 2:10 to snap an 8-8 tie and give the Moravian College men's lacrosse team a 10-8 non-conference win over visiting King's College Wednesday afternoon at Rocco Calvo Field.
"King's is an established program with junior and seniors, and they play hard," commented Head Coach Dave Carty. "They played some close matches with some Landmark Conference schools that we're going to be competing with next year so we wanted to make sure we can compete at the level. We didn't know how today would turn out but the guys had a great practice yesterday and we were able to put some balls in the net. The thing that has been amazing for us is that for freshmen, nothing seems to faze them. We don't know if they are too young to get rattled or they just don't get rattled. Most teams that give up three goals late to tie the match, you get tight but it seemed to loosen our guys up. We came back and got a goal lead but then hit a clutch shot late to go up by two and that was huge to take away any momentum they had."
Freshman attack James Carroll paced Moravian with four goals while Oriolo and senior midfielder Dave Fiumara each scored twice. Freshman midfielder Christopher Klodowski netted a goal and added two assists while Gurreri had goal and an assist. Junior defender Ed Delia and freshman midfielder Robert Gellatly each had one assist.
Freshman goalie Kurt Dick made 15 saves in the victory while Delia and freshman defender John Polich each scooped up five ground balls to lead the Greyhounds with Delia causing three turnovers and Polich forcing a pair of turnovers. Carroll and Fiumara each had four ground balls while freshman midfielder Jake Burcaw added three ground balls.
The Monarchs took a quick 1-0 lead just 1:25 into action before Carroll tied the match a little over four minutes later. The tie only lasted for 13 seconds before King's moved ahead, 2-1, which was also the score at the end of the first quarter.
Moravian scored the first four goals of the second quarter with Fiumara tying the match just over two minutes into the period and Carroll giving the Blue and Grey a 3-2 lead at the 10:29 mark. Carroll added another goal and Klodowski scored as the Greyhounds stretched the lead to 5-2 before a late goal by King's had Moravian leading 5-3 at the intermission.
The Monarchs scored the first and last goals of the third quarter but the Hounds would net a man-up goal by Fiumara and Oriolo's first goal of the match to maintain a two-goal lead, 7-5, after 45 minutes of action.
King's scored three of the first four goals in the fourth quarter around a man-up goal from Oriolo to tie the match at 8-8 with 4:38 to play. Gurreri would break the tie with 2:10 left on the clocks, and Oriolo took a feed from Klodowski, who looped around the entire field before passing, and found the cage with an insurance goal with 1:47 remaining. The Monarchs would get off three shots in the last 1:05 of action with Dick making two saves in the final 13 seconds.
Moravian, now 8-2 on the season, is scheduled to return to action on Wednesday, April 6 when the squad hosts NCAA Division II St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.) College in a non-conference match beginning at 4:00 p.m. at Rocco Calvo Field.
