Men's Lax: Strong Second Half Propels #5 Ithaca Past Poets

NCAA Division III #5 Ithaca College scored seven goals in the second half on their way to a 12-7 victory over Whittier College on Monday afternoon.  Four Bombers registered goals to hand the Poets their first loss of the season.

The Poets came out of the gates with a goal from Anthony Lackey in the opening minute of the game.  Ithaca responded less than three minutes later with a goal of their own, as Logan Bobzien tallied his first of three on the day at the 11:52 mark. 

Whittier regained the lead with seven minutes left in the first when sophomore midfielder, Sean McCarroll beat a defender and rifled a shot into the upper corner past Ithaca goalie, Ben Connery.  Once again, Ithaca responded quickly, tying the game thirty seconds later with another Bobzien strike. 

Bobzien then provided an assist on the Bombers go-ahead goal with 4:40 left in the opening frame, feeding Matt Nelligan who slid past the Poet defense for an easy score.  The pair hooked up again less than a minute later for a 4-2 lead.  The teams exchanged goals in the final two minutes of the quarter and Ithaca held a 5-3 advantage after one.

The Poet defense stepped up in the second quarter, holding the Bombers to just six shots and no goals.  Whittier pulled within one 42 seconds into the quarter when Lackey found junior attackman, Matt Mulry at the edge of the crease for a point-blank goal.  Lackey tied the score 1:18 later with his second goal of the game.  The teams entered the locker rooms at halftime with the score tied at five.

With one half of lacrosse in the California sun under their belts, the Bombers showed why they are ranked among the nation's best.  Ithaca took a 6-5 lead at the 9:00 mark of the third quarter, when Bobzien found Nelligan for the third time, resulting in Nelligan's third goal.  He finished with four goals and Bobzien had three assists. 

Craig Lepiane scored his first of two second half goals with three minutes left in the third to extend the lead to 7-5.  The Poets were down but not out as they cut the lead to one thirteen seconds later when Ben Barchey scored his lone goal of the game on an assists from Kevin McCarroll. 

A Whittier slashing penalty with less than two minutes to play in the third quarter gave the Bombers a man-up opportunity.  For the second time in as many chances, Ithaca was able to capitalize on a Poet penalty, this time Bobzien scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal with 58 seconds left in the third quarter. 

Ithaca was 3-for-3 with the extra-man, with the third goal coming with 11:06 left in the game to make the score 9-6.  The Poets would cut the lead to two with 8:49 left, but could not pull even.  Ithaca scored three more times in the final stanza to escape with the 12-7 lead.

Whittier goalkeeper, Ben Brown was strong between the pipes with 14 saves.  He faced 45 shots from the Ithaca attack.  The Poets took 33 shots in the game.  The groundball battle was close, with a slight 29-26 edge belonging to the Bombers.  Whittier face-off specialist Corey Schab was 10-for-18 at the face-off "X".  He also had seven groundballs.  David Denniston collected four groundballs for the Poets

Nelligan led Ithaca with four goals and added an assist.  Bobzien finished with three goals and three assists.  Alec Siefert scored three times and Lepiane rounded out the scoring with two goals and an assist.

Lackey finished with three points to led the Poets.  Mulry, Barchey, Chaudry and Christian Wright scored one goal apiece.  Kevin McCarroll was credited with two assists.

Ithaca is now 4-0 this season while Whittier falls to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in NCAA play.  The Poets travel to San Diego for their next game; a match-up with Drew University at Coronado High School on March 15 at 4:00pm.