ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE MEN'S LACROSSE
Saturday, February 26, 2005

Nationally Ranked F&M Downs Etown 11-7 in Season Opener

View pictures of the game here (NOTE: Links to an off-site page).

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College opened its 2005 men's lacrosse season with an 11-7 home loss to Lancaster County non-conference rival Franklin & Marshall College Saturday. It was the first time the two schools had ever faced each other in men's lacrosse before. While F&M, which is currently ranked 22nd in the nation in the LaxPower.com preseason poll and 23rd in the nation in the Inside Lacrosse preseason poll, has been playing lacrosse since 1947 and is in its 49th season of competition, Elizabethtown has had varsity men's lacrosse since 2002. F&M is now 1-0 overall, while the Blue Jays drop to 0-1.

F&M got on the scoreboard quickly and built a 2-0 lead early in the first quarter was Colin Hanley (Davidsonville, MD/DeMartha) scored at 14:05 and Steve Welsh (Lewes, DE/Cape Henelopen) followed with a goal at 12:51. Etown quickly knotted the score at 2-2, as Frankie Puzzangara (Wallingford, PA/Strath Haven) scored at 11:38 and Brian Ginter (Newtown Square, PA/Marple Newtown) scored at 10:19. F&M took a 3-2 lead into the end of the first quarter following another Welsh goal at 10:06.

By halftime, F&M led 6-3 as Hanley scored with 14:08 left in the second period, Kevin Kohl (Manasquan, NJ/Loomis Chafee) scored at 12:18, and Cyrus Adams (Nashville, TN/Montgomery Bell) scored at 6:17. Justin Griffey (Aberdeen, MD/Aberdeen) scored Etown's lone goal of the second period with 10:06 left.

With 8:21 left in the third quarter, Griffey's second goal of the game for Etown cut the Diplomats' lead to 6-4, and the lead was further reduced to 6-5 with 5:37 left in the period when Dave Eshleman (Lancaster, PA/Manheim Twp.) scored for the Blue Jays.

Etown tied the game at 6-6 with 12:25 remaining in the fourth quarter when Bryan Miller (West Chester, PA/Henderson) scored an unassisted goal. From there, however, F&M outscored Etown 5-1 the rest of the way as the Blue Jays ran into penalty trouble. Kohl added his second goal of the game for F&M with 10:49 left to give the Diplomats a 7-6 lead. F&M went up 8-6 with 8:29 left as Adams scored on a man-up opportunity. At 6:47, a man-up goal by Griffey, his third goal of the game, kept Etown close by making the score 8-7. Tommy Kehoe (Coraoplolis, PA/Sewlickey) gave F&M a 9-7 lead at 6:35, and J.B. Robichau (Edgartown, MA/Tabor) scored a man-up goal with 2:27 left to give the Diplomats a 10-7 edge. Bobby Atkins (Concord, MA/Loomis Chafee) scored the game's final goal for the Diplomats at 1:27.

Griffey led all goal scorers in the game with three for the Blue Jays. Allen Churchman (Aston, PA/Garnet Valley) and Chris McCrea (Broomall, PA/Marple Newtown) paced the Blue Jays in ground balls with six each, and Miller had five. Etown goaltender Fran McKeever (Springfield, PA/Springfield) made 15 saves in 60 minutes and had three ground balls.

F&M goalkeeper Mike Sartorius (Summit, NJ/Summit) made 12 saves and had four ground balls. Matt Capone (Scarsdale, NY/Scarsdale) led F&M in ground balls with six.

Etown will return to action on the road March 5 at nationally 15th-ranked Roanoke College in a 1:00 p.m. non-conference game.

Score by period 1 2 3 4 Tot
-------------------------------------
Franklin & Marshall. 3 3 0 5 - 11
Elizabethtown Coll.. 2 1 2 2 - 7

Franklin & Marshall SCORING: GOALS: Steve Welsh 2; Cyrus Adams 2; Colin Hanley 2; Kevin Kohl 2; J.B. Robichau 1; Tommy Kehoe 1; Bobby Atkins 1. ASSISTS: Cyrus Adams 2; Steve Welsh 2.
Elizabethtown Coll. SCORING: GOALS: Justin Griffey 3; Bryan Miller 1; Dave Eshleman 1; Brian Ginter 1; Frankie Puzzangara 1. ASSISTS: Rob Towe 1.
Franklin & Marshall GROUND BALLS: Matt Capone 6; Tommy Kehoe 4; Mike Sartorius 4; Nick Youngman 4; Cyrus Adams 3; Steve Welsh 3; J.B. Robichau 2; Colin Hanley 2; Phil Schellhorn 2; Rob Baker 1; Sean Duffy 1; Lincoln Fisher 1; Devin Hewitt 1; Kevin Kohl 1; Henry Kusjanovic 1.
Elizabethtown Coll. GROUND BALLS: Allen Churchman 6; Chris McCrea 6; Bryan Miller 5; Justin Griffey 4; Frank Cacia 3; Fran McKeever 3; Matt Newell 3; Matt Seiboth 3; Gary Senese 3; Dave Eshleman 2; Tim Sieger 2; Ryan Smetana 2; Jason Wolensky 2; Mike DiBartolomeo 1; Mike Dunn 1; Brian Ginter 1; Ryan Leister 1; Justin McQuaid 1; Paul Wisneski 1.
SHOTS - FANDM 30; ETOWN 32.
PENALTIES - FANDM 5/3:30; ETOWN 5/5:00.
MAN-UP OPPORTUNITIES - FANDM 1-4; ETOWN 1-5.
FACEOFFS - FANDM 12-21; ETOWN 9-21.
CLEARS - FANDM 21-26; ETOWN 20-29.
GOALIES - FANDM: Mike Sartorius 1-0 (60:00 minutes, 19 shots-12 saves,
7 GA); ETOWN: Fran McKeever 0-1 (60:00, 26-15, 11).

View pictures of the game here (NOTE: Links to an off-site page).