HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. --- The Moravian College men's lacrosse team opened its 2019 campaign with a 21-2 non-conference victory at Centenary (N.J.) University Thursday afternoon.
Junior attack Cade Siddron and sophomore attack Connor Hull each scored four goals and added an assist to lead the Greyhounds while senior attack Jack Gozzard netted three goals. Senior attack Mark Laratta contributed two goals and two assists while senior midfielder John Kerrison had a goal and an assist, the first two points of his career.
Senior midfielder Dominick Gurreri, freshman midfielder Elijah Price, senior midfielder Alec Oriolo, sophomore attack Matt Comini, junior attack Kevin Darling, freshman attack Connor James and sophomore midfielder Timothy Dwyer each scored a goal while freshman midfielder Nick Nolder contributed one assist. Darling led the Hounds with four ground balls while Price scooped up three ground balls.
Senior midfielder Rick Guerra was 8-for-16 on face-offs with three ground balls for Moravian while freshman midfielder Ben Walek was 6-for-10 in the face-off circle. Junior long stick midfielder Jimmy Schicke, sophomore defender Tanner Leslie and junior midfielder Brandon Sisk all had three ground balls while Laratta, James and Hull each scooped up a pair of ground balls. Senior defender Brian Biase added a pair of caused turnovers.
Senior goalie Kurt Dick started for the Blue and Grey and made three saves in the first half while sophomore goalie Will Dadouris recorded seven saves in the second half.
The Greyhounds had a 65-18 advantage in shots, a 33-20 edge in ground balls and was 17-for-18 on clears out of the defensive end.
Laratta opened the scoring 1:50 into the match and the season before the Cyclones knotted the score at 1-1. Laratta would give the Blue and Grey the lead for good with 8:26 left in the opening quarter with his second goal of the afternoon that started 13 straight tallies by Moravian. Gozzard scored his second of the match to give the Greyhounds a 5-1 lead after 15 minutes of action.
Siddron score twice late in the second quarter to give Moravian a 10-1 lead at the intermission. Siddron added a goal in third quarter and Oriolo netted the squad's only man-up goal of the match for a 12-1 advantage after 45 minutes of play. Hull scored all four of his goals in the fourth quarter as the Hounds scored nine times in the final period.
Moravian will return to action on Saturday, February 23 when the squad hosts Delaware Valley University in a non-conference contest on John Makuvek Field beginning at 1:00 p.m.
