Reading, PA – The Rosemont men's lacrosse team (1-4) claimed their first win this season in a thrilling 7-6 win over the host Alvernia Crusaders (3-4) tonight by a final score of 7-6.
Leading for most of the first half, the Ravens took a three-goal advantage into the second half. Alvernia outscored Rosemont 4-2 in the deciding half, but the Ravens were able to keep the Crusaders off of the scoreboard to hold on to the win.
Behind 1-0, the Ravens scored the last two goals of the first quarter when Rasool Smith and Stephen Licata hit the net to give the Ravens a 2-1 lead after the horn sounded.
Rosemont made it three straight goals when Licata opened up the second quarter with his second goal of the night only 10 seconds into the period to give the Ravens a 3-1 lead. Over eight minutes later, Alvernia scored to get back to within 3-2, but the Ravens would score the final two goals of the half as Zach Bowe scored with just under three minutes left and Rasool Smith scored with 1:44 left to give Rosemont a 5-2 edge at the half.
The Rosemont momentum didn't appear to last long as the Crusaders scored the first three goals of the third quarter to knot the game at 5-5 with 3:33 remaining in the frame, but Rosemont grabbed back the lead with 2:11 left on Licata's goal and on a scoring shot from Anthony Bottoms with one tick remaining in the quarter to put the Ravens back on top by two, 7-5, heading into the final term.
Goals were hard to come by in the tightly-played final quarter. In fact, the only goal of the quarter came from Alvernia's Brian Schay on a shorthanded situation, to enable the Crusaders to sneak back to within a goal at 7-6. Alvernia put a shot into the net on a buzzer-beater attempt as the scoreboard clock ran down to 0:00, but the officials ruled that the ball was put into the goal after time had expired and they whistled-off the potential score.
Licata scored three goals to lead Rosemont, while Rasool Smith added two. Zach Bowe and Anthony Bottoms each scored once.
Kiefer Paul was credited with the win in goal, stopping seven out of Alvernia's 13 shots on goal.
A key to keeping Rosemont in control was the play of Bowe in the faceoff circle. Bowe won the first 13 straight faceoffs of the contest and won 14-of-16 overall.
The Ravens held the advantage in ground balls (37-22) and in shots (27-22).
Next up for the Ravens will be their first CSAC game of the season. They are scheduled to play Keystone on Saturday, 3/21 at 2:00pm at Cabrini College.
