Boxscore
(Chester, Pa.) – The #6-ranked Dickinson College men's lacrosse team survived a late run, holding off Widener University, 9-8, on Saturday.
The Red Devils went in front 2-0 behind early goals from Pat Curley (Ellicott City, Md./Mt. St. Joe's) and Brian Cannon (Reisterstown, Md./Loyola Blakefield). Widener tied the game, scoring a pair of unassisted goals, including an extra-man goal with 6:24 remaining in the quarter.
The Devils regained the lead as Curley fed Bobby Kingsley (Bethesda, Md./St. Alban's) with 4:08 to play in the quarter. The score remained 3-2 until the 5:58 mark of the second period. Johnny Casey fed Josh Fox on another extra-man opportunity to pull Widener even.
Sophomore Christian Beitel (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) fed classmate Reiley Crosby (Monkton, Md./Hereford) to answer just over a minute later. Casey scored to tie the game again, sending the teams into halftime knotted, 4-4.
Dickinson struck three times in the opening three minutes of the second half. Sophomore Brandon Palladino (Basking Ridge, N.J./Basking Ridge) scored with an assist from Kevin Joy (Darien, Conn./Darien) at the 14:38 mark. Ward Gruppo (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Prep) found the net at 13:07 and Cannon scored an extra-man goal off an assist from Beitel with 12:08 on the clock.
Cannon struck again with his third goal of the game, scoring on an assist from long-stick defenseman John Haire (Darien, Conn./Darien), putting the Devils up, 8-4, with four minutes to play in the third period. Widener broke up the run with an unassisted goal from Andrew Janusz with 1:32 on the clock to end the period trailing 8-5.
Gruppo made the score 9-5 at the 10:44 mark of the fourth, netting his second of the game. The Pride continued to battle, scoring three straight goals to cut the deficit to 9-8 with 39 seconds remaining. JJ Hoeffler scored at the 8:26 mark and Mike Holtz tallied with 5:57 to play to make the score 9-7. Fox kept the Pride's hopes alive, cutting the lead to one in the final minute.
Widener won the ensuing face-off but a turnover forced by defenseman Peter Zouck (Baltimore, Md./Gilman) gave the ball to the Devils with 10 seconds remaining in the game. The Pride regained possession once more with three seconds to play, but were unable to score.
The Red Devils ranked, ranked sixth in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Poll, improve to 6-1 overall. Widener slips to 2-2.
Cannon led the Devils with three goals while Gruppo finished with a pair. Beitel dished out two assists. Joy added three caused turnovers to his assist. Jack O'Connor (New Vernon, N.J./Delbarton) controlled three ground balls.
Junior Chip Murray (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) won 11-of-19 face-offs and controlled five ground balls. Sophomore goaltender Greg Hanley (Laurel Hollow, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor) made 13 saves, including six in the final period.
Bobby Schluter and Mac Nestler each made four saves in goal for Widener.
The Red Devils open Centennial Conference play on Wednesday night. They travel to McDaniel College for a 7:00 pm face-off with the Green Terror.
