Just six days after being blown out by Loyola at Ridley Field to start the season, Virginia got another test — and a scare to go with it.

The Cavaliers hosted a Lehigh team ranked No. 13 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Preseason Top 20, but had lost star attackman Andrew Pettit to a season-ending injury and seven other players who were “out indefinitely” according to Inside Lacrosse.

Lehigh led by two goals at halftime, but Virginia got a big second half from Michael Kraus to secure the 11-8 victory at Klockner Stadium. 

Virginia opened with the game’s first two goals coming from Matt Moore and Jeff Conner. The Mountain Hawks answered with a five-goal run to take a three-goal lead in the second quarter. Tristan Rai had a goal and two assists in a run that saw five different scorers.

Ian Laviano and Kraus traded goals with Lehigh to pull Virginia within 6-4 at halftime. 

The Cavaliers came out of halftime with a 3-0 third quarter, including two rips from Kraus. The teams went back-and-forth through the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, but Kraus and Jared Conners combined for consecutive goals to put Virginia up 10-7 with 3:55 left — a lead that proved insurmountable.

Lehigh won the faceoff battle 15-8, but failed to clear seven out of 18 times and went 3-for-7 on the extra-man. 

Towson Runs Away from Mount St. Mary’s

Towson, coming off a huge victory over Johns Hopkins last weekend, picked up another win on Friday afternoon at Mount St. Mary’s.

Brody McLean dropped five goals and Tyler Canto made 18 saves to lead the Tigers, who shook off a tight first quarter to down Mount St. Mary’s 12-7.

McLean had Towson’s first two goals, helping his team jump out to an early lead. Chris DiPretorio and Luke Frankeny combined to cut the deficit to 3-2 at the end of the first quarter.

However, the Tigers added four unanswered goals in the second quarter to take hold of the game. Luke Fromert had two goals in the quarter — one of two players with a first-half hat trick (McLean).

Mount St. Mary’s rallied in the third quarter with three straight goals, but the deficit was too large to overcome. McLean had two more goals, and Fromert another, to fuel the Tigers’ second win in 2019.

Marquette Gets By Jacksonville

Marquette downed Jacksonville in one of two nightcap games Friday night. Bob Pelton tallied a hat trick to lead the Golden Eagles to the 14-12 win in a tight battle.

A balanced attack allowed Marquette to roar out to a 6-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. Holden Patterson, Pelton and Peter Henkhaus made it 3-0, and after a Jacksonville goal, Tanner Thomson, Connor McClelland and John Wagner provided another three-goal rally.

Jacksonville found its offense on either side of halftime, tallying four straight goals to pull within a goal in the third quarter. Jack Dolan scored twice on the run that made it 7-6.

Pelton added two more goals, and Wagner cashed in another, to help Marquette pull out to an 11-7 lead late in the third quarter. The teams went back-and-forth throughout the fourth quarter until Jacksonville cut the deficit to 14-12 with 3:03 remaining on an Evan Tyler goal.

Despite two turnovers from Marquette, Jacksonville could not get closer. The Dolphins won the faceoff battle 17-13, but the Golden Eagles dominated on ground balls 31-16.

Navy Moves to 2-0

Navy continued a hot start to the 2019 season with an 11-6 win over UMBC at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The win moves the Midshipmen to 2-0 on the year.

Christian Daniel scored the first two goals for Navy, part of a run that included four of five goals to put the Midshipmen up 4-1 in the first quarter. UMBC responded with two straight goals to cut the deficit, but Navy added goals from Nick Cole and Jack Sweeney to lead 7-4 at half.

UMBC clawed back to 8-6 at the end of the third quarter thanks to goals from Ryan Frawley and Trevor Patschorke. However, Navy answered with a three-goal fourth quarter to pull away from the Retrievers late.

Daniel finished with five goals and an assist to lead the Midshipmen, while Ryan Kern had 14 saves.

Lafayette Tips Wagner

Pat Myers picked up his second victory with Lafayette in a battle between first-year head coaches.

Lafayette got a trio of hat tricks to pull away from Wagner and coach Bill McCutcheon for the 13-10 victory on Friday. Andrew Robbins, Connor Dehnert and Bryan Hess each had three goals to lead Lafayette

Nike/US Lacrosse Men's Division I Top 20 Scoreboard

No. 9 Towson 12, Mount St. Mary's 7
No. 10 Virginia, Lehigh 8
No. 19 Marquette 14, Jacksonville 12

Other Scores

Navy 11, UMBC 6
Lafayette 13, Wagner 10