BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh attack combined for nine goals and 14 points while senior goalie Matt Poillon made 15 saves, none bigger than a stop in the final minute, to lead the Mountain Hawks past Boston University in the Patriot League opener on Saturday, 10-9. The game began frigidly cold before snow began falling (heavily at times) late in the contest. The Terriers erased a three-goal fourth-quarter deficit, but senior Patrick Corbett scored his career-high fifth goal of the game with 2:37 remaining to give Lehigh the lead back, and the defense came up with a big stop in the weighing minutes for the Mountain Hawks’ fifth straight Patriot League opening victory.
“I thought the two teams battled really hard,” said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. “It was good for us to have a great second quarter. They got the better of us in the third quarter. The field became really tilted towards their offensive end because they were winning a lot of faceoffs and picking up a lot of groundballs. Give BU a lot of credit for scrapping back.
Corbett finished with his career-high five goals on six shots, while also scooping three groundballs. Junior Reid Weber tied a career high with four goals, adding four groundballs as well. Senior Dan Taylor didn’t score on the afternoon (only firing one shot), but he did tie a career-high five assists set last week. The hat tricks for Corbett and Weber were the 11th and sixth of their careers, respectively.
“It was great to have Patrick back today,” said Cassese. “He did a nice job. He did what Patrick has done his entire career which is score a lot of goals. We had pretty good chemistry today on offense, especially early on. If you told me that Dan Taylor wasn’t going to score a goal today, I would have said we’re going to be in trouble. But he dished five assists and Reid Weber checked in with four goals. I thought our attack play was excellent. That’s what we needed to have and we got it. I’m proud of those guys, but this was a total team effort.”
Poillon was stellar between the pipes, making 15 saves including six in the first quarter and fourth in the fourth. On defense, junior Casey Eidenshink tallied three groundballs and a career-high four caused turnovers. Lehigh caused 10 of the Terriers’ 13 turnovers on the afternoon.
“I thought Matt Poillon was special today,” said Cassese. “I don’t think he’s played well in our first couple games this year and I personally challenged him today, saying Matt, we need the All-American back. He was excellent today. The most trouble he had was when he was looking into a driving snowstorm trying to save a white ball. Luckily, we were able to get the switch over to the yellow ball and he made a couple saves at the end there to secure the win. I thought today was as much as he’s looked like his All-American self as we’ve seen to date.”
Just over four minutes into the game, Weber got the scoring started on the extra man, taking a feed from Taylor and firing a shot past Boston University goalie Christian Carson-Banister to make it 1-0. The teams traded goals over the ensuing minutes until a Weber unassisted tally made it 3-2 after one quarter of play.
Corbett was the story of the second quarter, posting a natural hat trick and all three goals of the stanza by either side. Junior Billy Oppenheimerassisted on the first on the extra man while Taylor assisted on the final two, which helped make it 6-2 at the half.
Boston University controlled the third quarter, scoring four of the five goals including a goal as the quarter expired, to pull within 7-6 after 45 minutes of play. Weber opened the scoring in the fourth quarter while freshman Nolan Apers scored his first-career goal just 58 seconds later to make it 9-6 Mountain Hawks with 9:40 remaining. However, as the snow began to fall, Boston University made its final charge, scoring three straight goals to tie the score at nine with just under five minutes remaining.
Lehigh had an answer, converting its third man-up goal of the game as Taylor found Corbett for a third time, making it 10-9 with 2:37 remaining. The Mountain Hawks held on down the stretch as Poillon made a big stop with 42 seconds remaining and Lehigh cleared the ball to hold on for the victory.
Final shots were 43-28 in favor of the Terriers while Boston University held a 36-30 edge in groundballs. Boston University won 13-of-22 faceoffs while the Terriers were 2-for-4 on the extra man compared to Lehigh’s 3-for-6.
“I’m definitely disappointed in our guys for the second half,” said Cassese. “We try to pride ourselves on being a great third quarter team, but we didn’t get it done today, unfortunately. However, I’m proud we showed up big in the fourth quarter and made enough plays in the end to win.”
The Mountain Hawks will now head to #8 Loyola next Saturday (Feb. 28) for a rematch of the 2014 Patriot League Championship Game. Lehigh returns home the following Saturday (Mar. 7) to host Bucknell.
