LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall men's lacrosse team moved to 2-0 on the young season with an 11-6 win at home against Lebanon Valley on Wednesday afternoon. With both squads coming into the contest having won their season openers, the Diplomats and Knights were locked in a tight six-all battle late in the third quarter before Franklin & Marshall scored the only five goals of the fourth quarter and pulled away with the victory.
Kai Kelly scored three of those fourth quarter goals and assisted on another as part of a huge seven goal and eight point performance from the junior. Liam Timmins also scored twice in the victory, with Mason Montrella and Kyle Stevenson additionally finding the back of the cage. As a team, F&M held a 55-36 advantage in shots but 24 saves from Arcadia's Joseph Tesler kept his side in the contest through the first three quarters. Not to be outdone, Sage Garito finished with an almost identical save percentage but faced a much lower quantity of shots as he stopped 12 of the 18 attempts on goal that he faced over the 60 minutes.
It took until the 5:46 mark of the opening quarter, but the Diplomats would eventually find goals from Timmins and Kelly that came just 1:43 apart. Montrella made the game a 3-1 battle with his goal that came with under a minute to play in the quarter. Arcadia got the game down to a single goal deficit during the second quarter, but two goals in a span of just 32 seconds from Kelly gave F&M a 5-2 lead which was trimmed slightly to 5-3 at the half.
The Knights scored back-to-back goals just once all afternoon and did so with three successive goals to start the third quarter. That was the only period in which Arcadia had the advantage in goals as the visitors tallied three times in a span of 5:11 to tie the game at six-all.
Nevertheless, the Diplomats more than doubled up the Knights in shots during the final 15 minutes on their way to victory. Scoring on five of their eight shots on goal during that final period, Christian Sullivan found Kelly for the Diplomats' eventual game-winning goal with 11:22 remaining in regulation. That same combination made the score 8-6 just five minutes later. That opened a stretch of three goals in a span of 2:26 which put F&M up 10-6 before Kelly found Timmins with just over a minute to play to put the capstone of F&M's 11-6 victory.
Franklin & Marshall held advantages in both ground balls, 38-35, and face-off victories, 13-8, during the non-conference clash. After his school record for ground balls in a single game during the season opener, reigning Centennial Conference Defense Player of the Week Adam Soper went 62 percent at the face-off X and collected three ground balls. Brendan Murphy led the Diplomats with four ground balls and was one of 10 players who finished with a caused turnover. Helping the Diplomats' attack stay on the field was a strong transition defense that limited the Knights to 18-of-31 on their clearing attempts. First-year Jackson Barnhill caused two turnovers to pace the defensive effort in that category.
Men's lacrosse continues its six-game stretch at home to start the regular season when the Diplomats welcome No. 10 York (Pa.) to Shadek Stadium this Saturday, February 24. That contest will get underway with a 12 p.m. noon opening face-off.
