HPU MLAX Drops Heartbreaker To St. Joseph’s 12-11

• Junior Dan Lomas equaled a career high and a program record with six goals.
• Sophomore Michael LeClair chipped in with two goals and two assists.
• The Panthers will be back at home on Saturday, Feb. 21 at noon in Vert Stadium to host Sacred Heart.

PHILADELPHIA – The High Point University men’s lacrosse team got six goals from junior Dan Lomas, but fell 12-11 in a heartbreaker to Saint Joseph’s at Sweeney Field on Saturday.

The Panthers (1-3) responded to an early run by the Hawks (1-1) and built a 9-6 lead in the third quarter. However, SJU outscored HPU 6-2 over the final 20 minutes to pull out the win when Ryan McGee’s goal with 2.6 seconds left.

“I felt like we weren’t 100 percent focused today and we didn’t execute on our fundamentals for 60 minutes,” head coach Jon Torpey said. “At this level that will not set you up for success. We need to learn from this game and move forward.”

Lomas led the offensive attack for the Purple & White. The Canadian tied his career and the program record posting six goals in the snow. Sophomore Michael LeClair added two goals and two assists.

Redshirt-senior Austin Geisler was solid in goal with 14 stops while six different Panthers registered a caused turnover.

Junior Matt Thistle dished out two assists and led the Purple & White with six ground balls. Freshman Connor Robinson had his first multi-goal game of his career tallying two goals. Redshirt-junior Brad James added a goal and freshman Jason Ashwood tallied his first career point with an assist.

Junior Jamie Piluso went 11-of-26 (42.3 percent) on face-offs and was credited with three ground balls. Junior Tyler Cook also registered three groundballs in the contest.

The game was mostly even across the board with the Hawk taking a +1 (26-25) margin in ground balls and the Panthers taking one more shot (35-34). The difference came in shots on goals where SJU had 26 while the HPU had 21.

St. Joseph’s jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 2:30 minutes. But the Panthers bounced right back with goals from LeClair and Robinson to knot the score at 2-2 with 8:52 left in the first quarter. Moments later, Thistle found LeClair in transition for his second goal of the game to give the Purple & White a 3-2 lead with 6:48 on the clock.

Lomas made it a 4-0 run when he scored off of another assist by Thistle (4-2, 4:58). St. Joseph’s stopped the run with a goal at the 3:30 mark to send the game to the second quarter with HPU clinging to a 4-3 advantage.

The Panthers regained their two-goal lead when Lomas posted his second score of the game to make it 5-3 with 10:54 left until the half. Lomas, then, notched his third goal in 10 minutes to extend HPU’s lead to three goals (6-3, 9:55).

However, the Hawks pulled back within two goals as Mike Rastivo scored with four minutes before the break (6-4, 4:10). SJU fought back within one by capitalizing on an HPU turnover with 2:07 left in the half. But Lomas posted his fourth goal of the afternoon at the 1:49 mark to send the Panthers to the locker room up 7-5.

SJU opened the scoring in the second half and made it 7-6 with 13:15 left in the third quarter. Both offenses slowed down and neither team scored for the next seven minutes before James found the net to give HPU an 8-6 with 5:30 on the clock. Lomas extended the lead to three goals (9-6, 5:05).

SJU stormed back tallying two goals within a minute to make it 9-8 with 2:55 left in the quarter. The Hawks pulled even with 11:30 to play when Kyle Bruun scored to make it 9-9.

Rastivo scored to give SJU the lead for the first time since nine-minute mark in the first quarter (10-9, 10:19). Robinson had the answer for HPU and tied the game just two minutes later (10-10, 8:29).

Kevin Forster put the Hawks back up with a goal at the 7:41 mark (11-10). But as he did all day, Lomas answered to even the score at 11-11 with 1:17 on the clock.
However, McGee scored with 2.6 seconds left to give the Hawks the lead. Piluso won the face-off and got off a last second heave from midfield but it was wide and SJU came away with a 12-11 victory.

The Panthers will be back in Vert Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 21 to host Sacred Heart at noon.