BETHELHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's lacrosse team opened its 2017 season with a 9-7 non-conference victory over Bryn Athyn College Saturday afternoon in the Greyhounds' first match on John Makuvek Field.
"It was a really good win for us just from the stand point that we played them last year and lost 12-4 and they physically beat us up as lacrosse players," stated Head Coach Dave Carty. "Tucker runs a good group and there are a bunch of Canadians on that team. To play a good opening game and do a lot of things right, we're pretty happy with that.
"Makuvek Field is awesome," continued Carty. "It is a great venue, and we had a ton of fans out there with all of the families here. You can't ask for a better place to play."
Sophomore attack James Carroll led the Hounds with three goals and an assists while sophomore midfielder Alec Oriolo added two goals and two assists. Sophomore attacks Mark Laratta and Jack Gozzard each found the back of the cage twice while sophomore midfielder Austin Adams had three assists in his first collegiate game after missing last season with an injury and sophomore midfielder Dominick Gurreri added one assist.
Freshman goalie MacLean Lincoln had nine saves in his first collegiate start while sophomore midfielder Rick Guerra won 12-of-14 face-offs for Moravian to go with three ground balls. Freshman long stick midfielder Jimmy Schicke led the Greyhounds with five ground balls while sophomore defender Anthony Pontone contributed three ground balls to go with a pair of caused turnovers. Sophomore defender John Polich had two ground balls and two caused turnovers while sophomore defender Brian Biase caused three turnovers.
Carroll opened the season with back-to-back goals in the first quarter but Bryn Athyn answered to tie the contest at 2-2 after 15 minutes of action. Laratta put Moravian back in front three minutes into the second quarter, however, the Lions scored the only other goal of the period as the teams headed to the intermission tied at 3-3.
Bryn Athyn opened the scoring in the third quarter for its first lead of the afternoon before goals from Oriolo and Gozzard gave Moravian a 5-4 edge with 6:44 to play in the third. The Lions would score late in the quarter to have the match knotted at 5-5 after 45 minutes of action.
Oriolo scored off of a pass from Adams three minutes into the third quarter to five Moravian the lead for good, and Carroll scored on a break with the Greyhounds down a man with 10:26 to play. Laratta's second tally pushed the lead to 8-5 with 7:41 on the clock while Gozzard netted an insurance goal for the Greyhounds with 4:22 remaining.
Moravian heads to Virginia during Spring Break next week, and the Greyhounds will take on rival Muhlenberg College on Wednesday, March 8 in a non-conference match being played at Christopher Newport University at 12:00 p.m.
