PHOTOS: IAN NEADLE
On a absolute gorgeous day in the City of Brotherly Love, the Drexel Dragons faced off against their neighbors the Penn Quakers in round one of the NCAA Lacrosse Tournament at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. The contest was billed as “The Battle of 33rd St.” as the Universities are separated by only a few blocks.
The teams lived up to the hype that the local media was putting on this game as the Dragons overcame a bit of a slow start and defeated the Quakers 16-11.
Before the opening faceoff you can feel the anticipation. As you approached the stadium, fans from both Universities were already getting pumped up as the Penn Quaker Marching Band made there way into the venue. The fans for both Drexel and Penn where very loud in support of their teams.
The Penn Quakers started early by scoring twice in 42 seconds with goals from Pat Berkey and Zack Losco. to give them a 2-0 lead. Both teams would alternate goals and the Quakers would hold a 4-3 lead.
In the second quarter the game became even more chippy and the defense was putting a lockdown on the offense on both teams until the final 17 seconds of the half. That is when junior midfielder Nick Saputo scored twice in the final 12 seconds of the half to give the Dragons a 7-6 lead. Saputo scored his first of the game with one second remaining in the first quarter. Saputo would have a hat-trick on the day along with 12 ground balls and also going 21-30 on the face-offs.
Goaltender Will Gabrielsen who had a bit of a slow start came up huge in the first quarter keeping the Dragons close. Gabrielsen came up big in the third quarter as well as the Dragons went on a seven-goal run from the end of the first half to the 8:25 mark of the third quarter as they built an 11-6 lead going into the final quarter.
Penn Head Coach Mike Murphy said that his team just couldn’t recover from Drexel’s seven-goal run. The offense was throwing everything at Gabrielsen and he was just coming up big. Quakers pulled starting goaltender Brian Feeney in favor of John Lopes after Drexel scored four straight to open up the second half. Feeney returned to the game in the fourth quarter.
Penn was led by Nick Doktor (hat trick), eight other players had single tallies for the Quakers.
For the victorious Dragons, Nick Saputo, and Ben McIntosh had hat tricks. McIntosh was held scoreless until the fourth quarter. Nick Trizano, Jules Raucci and Ryan Belka tickled the twine twice for the Dragons.
Drexel Head Coach Brian Voelker said the kids have really grown this season, and believe nothing is impossible. Voelker also said the hardest part of this past week was calming the kids down before practice. After coming off the triple overtime win against Hofstra to capture the CAA Title, the campus was at a fever pitch. Now add in the first round match buildup against Penn and there is no doubt a buzz was over the campus.
Drexel will now face University of Denver Sunday May 18 in Newark DE. Game time is slated for 2:30. First game is at noon which will have Duke playing John Hopkins.
Attendance 2,852 on this gorgeous day for lacrosse and let’s not forget Mother’s Day!
