ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE MEN'S LACROSSE
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Elizabethtown Defeats MAC Rival Scranton 12-8; Frankie Puzzangara Sets Etown Season Goal and Ground Ball Records

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown the University of Scranton 12-8 at home in a Middle Atlantic Conference game Wednesday. The win improves the Blue Jays to 5-9 overall and 5-4 in the MAC, while Scranton drops to 3-11 overall and 3-7 in the MAC with the loss. In that game, Elizabethtown junior midfielder Frankie Puzzangara (Wallingford, PA/Strath Haven) set new program records for most goals and most ground balls in a season.

Scranton’s Kevin Joyce (Floral Park, NY/Chaminade) scored the game’s first goal 1:54 after the opening whistle. Etown’s Jeff Cowan (Drexel Hill, PA/Upper Darby) tied the score at 1-1 with 10:40 on the clock in the first quarter. Scranton went ahead 2-1 58 seconds later when Dan Stallone (South Plainfield, NJ/St. Joseph’s Metuchen) scored. Puzzangara scored his first goal of the game on a man-up opportunity with 3:24 left in the quarter to tie the game 2-2, and a Matt Seiboth (Havertown, PA/Haverford) goal with 2:24 left gave Etown a 3-2 lead at the end of the first quarter. Despite the tight score, Elizabethtown out-shot Scranton 20-5 and held a 15-6 edge in ground balls in the first quarter.

Etown took a 4-2 lead 1:07 into the second quarter when a Puzzangara shot ricocheted off Scranton goaltender Thomas Davis (Media, PA/Penncrest) and into the stick of Chris Harrison (Newark, DE/Salesianum), who buried the ball into the net for his first goal of the game. Scranton followed with a goal at 8:57 when Todd Cuccia (Larchmont, NY/Iona Prep.) scored. Harrison scored again for Etown with 4:09 left in the second quarter, and Scranton scored again at 3:51 on an Edward Boate (Media, PA/Penncrest) goal. Puzzangara scored his second goal of the game at 3:25 to give Etown a 6-4 lead. His third goal, and his record-tying 40th goal of the season, came with 41 seconds left in the second quarter to extend the Blue Jay lead to 7-4. Scranton narrowed the gap to 7-5 just 11 seconds later when Boate scored again.

Tom Welch (West Chester, PA/West Chester East) scored with 14:34 left in the third quarter to extend Etown’s lead to 8-5. Scranton cut the deficit to 8-6 on a Cuccia goal with 2:19 left in the third quarter.

Etown went up 9-6 as Puzzangara scored his Etown-record 41st goal of the season and fourth goal of the game with 14:25 left in the fourth quarter. The old record of 40 was set by Sean Thomson in the program’s inaugural season of 2002. Scranton responded with a goal by Joyce at 12:15 in the fourth quarter. Etown then rattled off three unanswered goals beginning at 8:52 as Welch scored again. At 8:43, Harrison scored his third goal of the game, and Max Felty (Elizabethtown, PA/Lancaster Country Day) followed with the second goal of his collegiate career at 4:59 to give Etown a 12-7 lead. Scranton scored its last goal with 2:20 left as Cuccia scored a man-down goal.

In addition to his four goals, Puzzangara also had an assist and 15 ground balls in the game. The 15 ground balls boosted his season total to 104, also setting a new Etown season record. The old record of 91 was set by Chris McCrea ’05 last season. On top of all of that, Puzzangara also won 17 of the 20 face-offs he took. Defender Gary Senese (West Chester, PA/Tatnall School, DE) had six ground balls for the Blue Jays, and goalie Chris Schuch (Columbia, PA/Hempfield) made nine saves and had two ground balls. Andrew Wagner (Bel Air, MD/C. Milton Wright) had two assists for Etown.

Cuccia led Scranton with three goals, and both Stallone and Thomas Kornobis (Merrick, NY/W.C. Mepham) had two assists for the Royals. Defender Dominick Bellizzi (Edison, NJ/St. Joseph’s) had six ground balls to lead Scranton. Davis made 21 saves and had three ground balls in 57:30 in the Scranton net.

Elizabethtown out-shot Scranton 52-23 over the course of the game, and the Blue Jays held a 50-27 edge in ground balls. The Blue Jays won 18 out of 22 face-offs and converted three out of six extra man opportunities.

Elizabethtown will return to action in its final regular-season game of 2006, a 2:00 p.m. road game against MAC rival Moravian College Saturday, April 29.

At Elizabethtown, Pa.
Elizabethtown 12, Scranton 8
Score by period       1 2 3 4   Tot
-------------------------------------
Univ. of Scranton ... 2 3 1 2 - 8
Elizabethtown Coll... 3 4 1 4 - 12

Univ. of Scranton SCORING: GOALS: Todd Cuccia 3; Kevin Joyce 2; Edward Boate 2; Dan Stallone 1. ASSISTS: Thomas Kornobis 2; Dan Stallone 2; Brendan Clifford 1.

Elizabethtown Coll. SCORING: GOALS: Frankie Puzzangara 4; Chris Harrison 3; Tom Welch 2; Jeff Cowan 1; Matt Seiboth 1; Max Felty 1. ASSISTS: Andrew Wagner 2; Jeff Cowan 1; Frankie Puzzangara 1.

Univ. of Scranton GROUND BALLS: Dominick Bellizzi 6; Sean Daly 3; Thomas Davis 3; Andrew Healy 3; Dan Stallone 3; Todd Cuccia 2; William Chambers 1; Charles Claps 1; Kevin Joyce 1; Thomas Kornobis 1; Joe McDevitt 1; William Rector 1; John Wilczynski 1.

Elizabethtown Coll. GROUND BALLS: Frankie Puzzangara 15; Gary Senese 6; Eric Peifer 4; Drew Ward 4; Max Felty 3; Chris Harrison 3; Frank Cacia 2; Jeff Cowan 2; Mike Ruby 2; Chris Schuch 2; Matt Seiboth 2; Andrew Wagner 2; Brad Whitcomb 2; Tom Welch 1.

SHOTS - ROYALM 23; ETOWN 52.
PENALTIES - ROYALM 5/4:00; ETOWN 3/2:00.
MAN-UP OPPORTUNITIES - ROYALM 0-3; ETOWN 3-6.
FACEOFFS - ROYALM 4-22; ETOWN 18-22.
CLEARS - ROYALM 21-26; ETOWN 16-22.

GOALIES - ROYALM: Thomas Davis (57:30 minutes, 33 shots-21 saves, 12 GA) , Tony Angelone (02:30, 0-0, 0); ETOWN: Chris Schuch (60:00, 17-9, 8).