EASTON, Pa. –
Matthew Minicus had a career-high nine points on four goals and five assists Saturday, leading four Loyola University Maryland players who had three or more goals in an 18-10 Patriot League victory over host Lafayette College at Fisher Stadium.
Matt Heuston,
Evan James and
Adam Poitras joined Minicus with hat tricks in the game, each scoring three.
Joey Kamish had two goals,
Davis Lindsey added one, and
Trent Turner and
Matt Dixon each had the first goals of their career.
Eric Pacheco won a season-high 17 faceoffs, winning 61 percent (17-28) during a game that was played with standing water on the field and in heavy rain, while
Luke Staudt (10) and
Ben Abel (2) combined for 12 saves in goal for the Greyhounds.
Loyola took a 4-1 lead less than seven minutes into the game behind two goals from Minicus and additional tallies by Dixon and Heuston, but Lafayette had a 4-0 run itself to go up 7-6 on a John Mathes goal with 8:22 to go in the first half.
Lafayette had an excellent chance to increase its lead less than a minute after Mathes' goal, going two men up for almost 90 seconds, but Loyola killed a total of 150 seconds in penalties to remain down by just one.
Kamish scored his first of the game with a Minicus assist 2:45 later, jumpstarting a stretch in which the Greyhounds would score 12 of the game's final 15 goals.
James had an unassisted goal at 4:33 to reclaim the lead for Loyola, 8-7, and Heuston scored from a Minicus feed 57 ticks of the clock later.
Staudt made a kick save of a Lafayette shot, and
Will Sherwood came up with a ground ball shortly thereafter. Sherwood threw over the top to
Mustang Sally who cleared the ball into the offensive zone and found Minicus for a goal with 2:19 left in the half, increasing the advantage to 10-7.
Lafayette pulled back within two on a Peter Lehman goal less than a minute later, but with a flag down, Turner came free on the left side and buried his first goal of the year with nine-tenths of a second left in the laf to send the teams to the locker room with Loyola up, 11-8.
That goal was the first of a 3-0 Loyola run that expanded to 8-1 through the middle of the fourth quarter.
James scored on extra-man at 10:54, and Kamish added his second midway through the third quarter before Charlie Cunniffe broke through for the Leopards at 7:41 to make it a 13-9 Loyola lead.
Loyola ran out almost the entirety of the shot clock minutes later, and James fed Lindsey running from X for a goal at 4:37. The Greyhounds then scored four-straight to open the fourth quarter.
Loyola outshot the Leopards, 41-38 with 25 of those shots going on goal.
The Greyhounds also had a 27-26 advantage in ground balls with Pacheco's effort at the faceoff X proving key. He had a team-high five ground balls, while Poitras added three.
Loyola returns to Ridley Athletic Complex for its next two games, starting on Friday, March 29, with a 7 p.m. game against Lehigh University.
