Hot Handed Hild Helps F&M to CC Win

Box Score

WESTMINSTER, Md. - Mark Hild scored four goals, including the game-winner, and assisted on three others to lead Franklin & Marshall to an 11-6 Centennial Conference (CC) men's lacrosse win at McDaniel on Wednesday. All four of his goals came in a first half dominated by the Diplomats (7-2, 3-1 CC).

It took Hild, the reigning Centennial Player of the Week, 1:24 of the first quarter to give F&M its first lead of the day. The Diplomats never looked back from there. Just over six minutes later, Shane Brennan made it 2-0 by dashing out from behind the net to pop a shot in the top right corner past the Terror (4-5, 0-3 CC) keeper, Kenny McHugh. McHugh was under siege throughout the first quarter, facing 13 F&M shots. He turned away six in the period.

McDaniel finally got on the board with 4:29 showing connecting on a bang-bang play between Matt Daley and Bill Warner.

F&M's Sean Murphy won the ensuing faceoff cleanly, scooped up the loose ball and sent F&M back on the attack. Eight seconds after McDaniel's first goal, the Diplomats answered with Noah Wilkinsky getting the first goal of his hat trick on a pass from Hild.

Murphy won 11 of the 17 faceoffs he took in the game, with F&M claiming 12 of the game's 20 faceoffs. The Dips took eight of 12 in the first half alone.

Hild and Wilkinsky conspired again in the second quarter with Hild netting the Diplomats' first shorthanded goal of the season. Andrew Capone was serving a minute for a cross-check, when a loose ball push was called on the center-stripe. Two passes later the ball came back to the x in the hand of an official with the Diplomats holding a 4-1 lead.

McDaniel answered on their next extra-man opportunity with Matt Buschman finding the net three minutes after Hild's man-down tally. The game was marred by 17 penalties.

Hild responded by sparking a four goal run in which he factored in each score. He scored twice and assisted twice in the run to the half, netting the game-winning goal with 24 ticks left in the second quarter. 20 seconds later Hild set up Bobby Atkins to make it 8-2 going into the break.

Evan Young gave McDaniel a pair of goals early in the second half. Warner, who finished the game with four assists, set up both. The Green Terror never got any closer than four goals. Wilkinsky accounted for both of F&M's goals in the fourth quarter, effectively ending any hopes of a comeback for McDaniel.

McHugh finished the day with 11 stops in the McDaniel net. Cautious second-half possessions left him to face just 12 shots over the course of the third and fourth quarter. His counterpart in the F&M net, Chris Marcozzi, also stopped 11 shots. F&M out-shot their hosts 30-27.

The win marks the second-straight in the series for the Diplomats and F&M's third in a row since falling to Ursinus in the Centennial opener. The Diplomats return to action at home on Saturday against Muhlenberg.