WASHINGTON, D.C. --- Moravian College senior attack Mark Laratta scored seven points to become the program's all-time leading scorer and his fifth goal forced overtime, but the Greyhounds ended up falling at The Catholic University of America, 14-13 in overtime, in Landmark Conference action Saturday afternoon.
The Hounds, now 6-3 overall and 1-1 in Landmark Conference play, had a total of six players score goals with Laratta leading the way with five goals and two assists to give him 172 career points, passing Clint Quedenfeld's mark of 169 points. Junior attack Cade Siddron contributed four goals, two assists and a pair of ground balls while senior defender John Polich had a goal, an assist, four ground balls and three caused turnovers as he scored his second career goal and first since the 2016 season. Senior attack Jack Gozzard, senior midfielder Dominick Gurreri and junior midfielder Brandon Sisk each scored one goal while senior midfielder Alec Oriolo added an assist.
Senior goalie Kurt Dick had 16 saves in the contest while senior midfielder Rick Guerra had six ground balls and went 9-for-29 on face-offs. Sophomore defender Tanner Leslie scooped up fourth ground balls while Laratta had three ground balls. Senior defender Brian Biase and freshman attack Connor James each had a pair of ground balls.
Catholic opened the scoring two and a half minutes into action but the Cardinals would not score again until five minutes into the second quarter. Gozzard tied the match at 1-1 with 11:47 left in the first period and Laratta scored 50 seconds later as Moravian took a lead it would hold until the third quarter. Siddron added a pair of first quarter goals and Gurreri scored once as the Blue and Grey led 5-1 after 15 minutes of action.
The Greyhounds also tallied the first two goals of the second quarter with Laratta and Siddron each scoring for a 7-1 Moravian lead with 12:13 to go in the second quarter. The Cardinals ran off three straight goals before Laratta scored again. Sisk would find the back of the net off of a feed from Laratta, for his record-breaking 170th career point, to put the Hounds up 9-4 with 7:17 left in the second period. Catholic scored in the final minute of the half as Moravian took a 9-5 lead into the intermission.
The Cardinals scored the first five goals of the second half to take a 10-9 lead before Siddron found the back of the net with 4:54 left in the third quarter. Catholic scored twice more before Polich's goal made it 12-11 Cardinals after 45 minutes of play.
Catholic pushed it to a two-goal lead with 5:56 to play before Laratta pulled the Hounds within a goal at the 4:39 mark. A year after beating the Cardinals with a goal in the final 10 seconds, Laratta did it again with a score in the final minute of regulation as his tally with 54 seconds to play knotted the score at 13-13 and forced overtime.
The Cardinals would get the winning goal 2:07 into the first four-minute overtime period for the victory.
Moravian is scheduled to return to action on Monday, April 1 with a non-conference match at Kean (N.J.) University beginning at 5:00 p.m.
