LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall men's lacrosse team dropped a back-and-forth battle inside Shadek Stadium during the team's home opener on Wednesday night. The non-conference clash with Bates was tied on seven different occasions before the visiting Bobcats scored all three goals during the fourth quarter of the 12-9 final. Tonight's matchup marked the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
Seven different players scored for the Diplomats, with Jacob Szczepanski and Matt Marino both finishing as multi-goal scorers for the hosts. William Shaw made 14 saves in his collegiate debut for the Diplomats, but took the tough loss decision despite F&M scoring on nine of its 15 shots on goal.
Face-offs were a huge factor in favor of Bates, but F&M jumped out to the early lead despite that possession differential. After conceding the first goal, The Diplomats scored three times in a span of just over five minutes to take their first of two multi-goal leads on the evening. Mason Montrella got the attack started just under two minutes into the game before Szczepanski scored both of his goals. The Bobcats tied the game at three-all at the end of the first quarter, but F&M quickly took a multi-goal lead with Marino and Preston Blue scoring in the first four minutes of the second quarter.
Bates again leveled the contest at five-all and neither team would have an advantage of more than a single goal until the fourth quarter as the score was knotted at six, seven, eight, and nine-all before heading into the fourth quarter. Each team finished the first three quarters with three goals each. Ryan Roberts, Dillon Mannix, Kai Kelly, and Marino all found the back of the cage during that period of tightly-contested play.
With the score tied at nine heading to the fourth quarter, Bates took just one more shot than the Diplomats during those final 15 minutes, but scored the only three goals of the final period. It took nearly 10 minutes of play in the fourth quarter before either side could crack the opposition's defense for the 10th goal of the game. When the first goal of the final period did come, it was the first of three in a span of just under two and half minutes for the eventual 12-9 final.
The visiting Bobcats finished the contest with a 47-34 advantage in shots which was slightly overcome by Shaw's strong debut in the cage. Six different players caused a turnover for the F&M defense, with Shaw adding a team-leading five ground balls to his 14 saves.
Men's lacrosse will look to bounce back from its first defeat of the season this Saturday when the Diplomats travel to York (Pa.) for a 1 p.m. face-off against the Spartans.
