2018 Men's Lacrosse Seniors vs. Scranton 4/14/18
Wyatt Eaton
6
Scranton SCR 8-5, 2-2 Landmark
12
Winner Elizabethtown ETOWN 6-7, 3-1 Landmark
Scranton SCR
8-5, 2-2 Landmark
6
Final
12
Elizabethtown ETOWN
6-7, 3-1 Landmark
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Scranton SCR 1 3 0 2 6
Elizabethtown ETOWN 4 2 3 3 12

Game Recap: Men's Lacrosse |

Men's lacrosse reigns over Royals on Senior Day

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- Saturday's matchup between Elizabethtown and Scranton figured to be a pivotal one in the race for a Landmark Conference postseason home game.

The defending conference champion Blue Jays put their big game experience on display, scoring four times in the first 15 minutes and never trailing in a 12-6 victory on Senior Day at Wolf Field.

Ben Hiltebeitel and Mike Scrafano each posted hat tricks and four-point afternoons. The Elizabethtown defense swarmed Scranton's Connor Kirkwood for a full 60 minutes, holding the Landmark's second leading scorer pointless, and Tom Mahoney made 13 saves in a total team effort.

Sophomore Scott Nizolak got the Blue Jays rolling with an unassisted goal, his 10th of the campaign, at 9:10 of the first. A pretty dodge from Scrafano opened up space and he beat Royals' (8-5, 2-2 Landmark) goalie Jeff Sabatini a man-up at 7:50, before Hiltebeitel made it 3-0 before the game was 10 minutes old.

When Brandon Sankey brought a ball in from the end line, evaded defender Michael Grant and fired a shot into the upper right corner with 1.1 seconds left in the first, it looked as if the Blue Jays (6-7, 3-1) had all the momentum.

Scranton stabilized itself after the slow start getting goals from Joe Hill and Quinn Killeen (man-up) less than two minutes apart to cut E-town's lead to 4-3.

Tim Dolan's goal off a Matt Carfaro pass tied the game with 6:37 left before halftime, but Sankey collected his second goal and Thomas Palen scored a man-up marker before the second quarter was complete.

The Royals never recovered, as Elizabethtown scored all three third-quarter goals. Hiltebeitel, Scrafano and Andrew Watts did the honors. Christian Neelon, one of four seniors honored prior to Saturday's game, assisted on the Scrafano goal for his first point of the season.

Jon Knapp capped a 6-0 run for the Blue Jays with his first career goal at 9:23 of the fourth. Scrafano found Knapp all alone in front of the cage and the West Grove native turned and whipped a shot by Sabatini for a 10-4 advantage.

Scranton got as close as 10-6, but Mike DiGenova intercepted a Royals' clearing attempt in the midfield and promptly sent a pass to Scrafano for the sophomore's hat trick goal which essentially put the game away with 5:06 to go. Hiltebeitel made sure of it with his own hat trick tally at the 2:40 mark.

Elizabethtown was perfect on its two man-up tries and face-off specialist Kyle Pienik did a solid job battling Scranton's Adam Drury and Collin Purdy, who both came in winning more than 70% of their attempts this season. Pienik won 8-of-17, while Drury was 12-of-18 for the Royals. Purdy did not win either of the two face-offs he took.

Senior Kyle Coats forced a pair of turnovers and picked up two ground balls, and Jeremy Klipple scooped up a game-high six ground balls.

Mahoney made three saves in each of the first three quarters and collected four more in the fourth to finish with 13. Sabatini had eight saves for Scranton.

Though outshot 38-35, E-town's defense continually frustrated Scranton's attack. Only Hill (one goal, one assist) and Carfaro (two assists) had multi-point  games for the visitors, while Kirkwood was blanked for the first time in 13 games this season. Kirkwood, who has 38 goals on the season, had 13 in his last two games prior to Saturday.

Elizabethtown took time to honor Coats and Neelon, along with Michael Hofstedt and Jon Jones before Saturday's opening face-off. Hofstedt recorded one shot, one ground ball and took three face-offs.

The Blue Jays are home twice next week, as they face league rival Moravian on Wednesday at 4 p.m., and Colorado College on Friday at 4 p.m.
 
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