SCRANTON, Pa. — The Elizabethtown College men's lacrosse team has now matched its win total from a season ago with its seventh victory Saturday afternoon in Landmark Conference action. The Blue Jays held off a fourth-quarter Scranton rally to down the Royals 5-4 and stay unbeaten in league play. The win is the Jays' sixth in a row.
Luke Stephens recorded his first goal of the season a little over a minute and a half into the game for Elizabethtown (7-2, 2-0 Landmark) as the Jays took an early 1-0 lead. Scranton's (5-4, 1-1 Landmark) Will Mahle scored the only other goal of the opening quarter as the team's went to the second tied 1-1.
E-town outshot the Royals 10-4 in the second 15-minute session, and got the only goal to take a 2-1 lead into the half.
Mike Specht recorded his first of two in the game to put the Jays ahead.
The third quarter was another one dominated by Elizabethtown. They held an 11-2 advantage in shots and outscored the hosts 3-0 to cushion the lead, 5-1.
Mike Specht tallied first with 8:22 to go in the quarter. Four minutes later,
Joe Clark took a feed from
Russ LeClair to score his 19th of the season. Clark returned the favor with 15 seconds to go in the third, assisting on LeClair's 19th of the year.
It was a good thing the Jays got the goals when they did because Scranton came out on a mission in the final quarter of play. E-town maintained its 5-1 lead through over half of the fourth, but the Royals scored three times in the final 5:19, with the last goal coming with just 12 seconds to go.
Enough time remained for Scranton to tie up the game, so it came down to the most important faceoff of the game.
Matt Rucci squared off with Matt Finor of Scranton and Stephens came out with the ball and E-town ran off the final 12 seconds to secure its second league win of the season.
Specht led the Blue Jays with his pair of goals. Clark and LeClair had a goal and an assist each while Stephens scored once with
Steve Nutting providing the assist.
Chris Wenger made eight saves for E-town to get the win.
The men's lacrosse team has another important conference showdown looming when they travel to face Catholic on Saturday, March 28 at 1 p.m.
