Sunday afternoon the Drexel Dragons (3-3) defeated the #11 Villanova Wildcats (3-3) 15-10 in the inaugural Philly 4 Lacrosse Classic at Vidas Field. It was their second victory of the weekend; on Friday night the Dragons faced the St. Joe’s Hawks at Villanova University and walked away with a 10-7 victory after scoring the final four of the game. Marshall King and Matthew Varian each had hat tricks and Matt Soran (2), Jack Mulcahy and Reid Bowering a goal each.
The Dragons’ first three games of the season where decided by one goal each. One went to OT and one went to double OT.
When Saturday’s game started, Villanova pushed their weight around. Connor Kirst, who ended the day with five goals, scored four of Nova’s goals to propel them to a 5-3 lead after the first quarter. As the game progressed, so did the hitting.
As Drexel was dishing out the hits, Villanova was dishing out their own but according to the officials they were illegal. Owen Prybylski took a one-minute unnecessary roughness after Collin Mailman scored to move the Dragons within a goal at 6-5. Mailman’s goal was part of an eight-goal run by the Dragons, during which the defense and freshman goalie Ross Blumenthal held the Wildcats scoreless for 19:40.
Blumenthal received his first start Friday night in the win over St. Joe’s.
“We decided to switch things up a bit and give Ross a shot,” said assistant coach Chris Collins. “He played so well we decided to go with the hot hand this afternoon.”
Blumenthal ended the game with 13 saves against Villanova and 19 over the course of the weekend.
Drexel had a four-goal lead at 12-8 as Villanova started to apply pressure but the stingy defense and goaltending never allowed the Wildcats to go on any type of run as Drexel matched them goal-for-goal to secure the victory and a weekend sweep of their games.
Mailman (4G) led the Dragons offense, while Nolan Fox and Matt Soran would score a pair each. Marshall King, Matthew Varian, Nick Fox, Reid Bowering and Jack Mulcahy would all add single markers. King also had three assists on the day.
Connor Kirst’s five goals led the Wildcats, but after the 38 second mark of the second quarter, he didn’t factor into the game.
Elsewhere at the Philly 4:
UPenn 13 vs. Villanova 11
The University of Pennsylvania was led by Sam Handley (4), Tyler Dunn, Sam Goldner and Simon Mathias with two goals each. Reed Junkin made 11 saves for the victory.
Villanova was led by Connor Kirst (4G/3A) and Corey McManus (3G). Will Vitton made 12 saves in the loss.
UPenn 13 vs. St Joe’s Hawks 6
In the final game of the two-day classic, the Penn Quakers (2-3/0-0) made this game look easy. For the first 25:51 of playing time Penn kept St. Joes (3-4/0-0) off the scoreboard while going on a seven-goal run. If you go back to their last goal on Friday versus Drexel, the total time between goals for the Hawks was 40:24.
Penn was led by Simon Mathias (3G/2A) and Adam Goldner (4G). Reed Junkin stopped 14 of 19 shots faced for Penn.
St. Joe’s was led by Nick Vernacchio with two goals and single markers from Matt Tufano, Ryan Doran, Austin Strazzulla and Nate Patterson.
Drexel………2-0…25GF / 17GA
Penn………..2-0…26GF / 17GA
Villanova……0-2…21GF / 28GA
St. Joes…….0-2…13GF / 23GA
