BALTIMORE –
Matthew Minicus scored his 100th career goal with 4:03 left in regulation to give Loyola University Maryland a two-goal lead over visiting Bucknell University, and the tally ended up being the deciding score in a 13-12 Patriot League victory.
Minicus struck from the low right side off a
Will Musgrove feed from the top left to move the Greyhounds' margin to two. The goal came less than two minutes after
Kenan Everhart broke an 11-11 tie with a goal off
Mason Cook's assist.
Cook finished with four goals and two assists, and Everhart added three and two.
Luke Murphy scored three times, and Minicus' goal added to an assist in the third quarter.
Minicus became the 15th player in program history to score 100 or more goals in a career.
Bucknell (6-3 overall, 2-2 Patriot League) did all of the scoring in the first five minutes of the game with Peter Grandolfo, Michael Meyer and Sean Murray all tallying goals before the 10:36 mark of the first quarter.
Loyola, however, got on the board less than a minute later when Cook threw to Murphy and he found the net. Cook was on the scoring end of a goal at 8:30, and Murphy picked up a rebound off a saved shot and scored at 7:44 to tie the game at 3-3.
Cook and
Kyle McCarthy would add goals over the next two minutes with McCarthy's first of the season capping a 5-0 run that took only three minutes, 30 seconds and put the Greyhounds up, 5-3.
The Bison got back within one at 2:39 on a Hans Huber goal, but Cook scored his second of the day on a
Connor Wilbur assist 30 ticks of the clock later, and the Greyhounds took a 6-4 lead to the second quarter.
Bucknell again opened the scoring in the period, posting four in a row with Luke Brunner's score at 3:45 giving it an 8-6 advantage.
Just eight seconds after that,
Aidan Hevia scored the first goal of his career for Loyola (5-4, 2-1), picking up the ground ball off a Loyola faceoff win and bouncing a shot inside the right pipe to pull Loyola within one before the half.
Faceoff wins would be a theme of the day for Loyola as
Mason Graves and
Carson Hall combined to go 19 of 29 (.655) at the X. Graves won a career-best 13 of 17 with six ground balls.
In the third quarter, it was Loyola that scored the first three goals. Cook scored on a Musgrove assist at 13:12, and then Everhart had his first two of the game, unassisted, at 12:20 and 6:27.
His second goal made it a 10-8 Greyhounds lead, but Owen Kovacs scored with 2:44 left in the third to move the Bison back within one.
Loyola scored with eight seconds left on the clock in the period as Murphy caught a Minicus pass and tallied his career-high third goal. Bucknell, however, got the goal back with less than two ticks to go in the quarter on a Kovacs tally from Brunner.
The Bison would even the game at 11-11 1:20 into the fourth quarter when Grandolfo scored his second of the day with a deep bouncer, but Loyola's defense shut Bucknell out for all but the last second of the game.
Everhart used Cook's assist at 5:57 to put Loyola in front, and Minicus made it a two-goal cushion at 4:03 with his 100th goal.
Bucknell picked up the ground ball to win the next faceoff, but
Tyler Olsen caused a turnover near midfield, and Loyola went on offense where it wound down the clock.
The Bison gained possession after a Greyhounds' shot was saved with 1:45 left in the game.
A Kovacs attempt went wide less than 40 seconds later, and
Max Watkinson then made two saves in a row on Meyer to preserve the two-goal margin. Olsen got the ball back again for Loyola with another caused turnover.
Bucknell got possession back quickly with 23 seconds left, but Sean Murray's shot was blocked by the Greyhounds.
Hevia picked up a slashing penalty with five seconds left, and Bucknell scored the last goal – Brunner to Meyer – with just under two seconds left.
Watkinson finished with 13 saves for the Greyhounds as Bucknell outshot Loyola, 46-43.
The Greyhounds will go on the road for their next game, playing at College of the Holy Cross at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, in Worcester, Massachusetts.
