SCRANTON, P.A. (April 2, 2022) -- Junior Mitchell Kozak (Floral Park, N.Y. / Floral Park Memorial) led The University of Scranton men's lacrosse team with four goals in a 19-10 loss to Landmark Conference foe Catholic on Saturday afternoon at Weiss Field. 

The Royals (4-5) conceded the first two goals of the game before Kozak got his squad on the board at the 10:26 mark of the first period. Catholic responded with three more goals to secure a 5-1 lead at the end of the first period. 

Sophomore Alex Eglitis (Randolph, N.J. / Randolph) got things going for Scranton at the start of the second period as he scored off a feed from senior Cole Lukasiewicz (Havertown, Pa. / Haverford) just over two minutes into period. Kozak followed up with his second goal of the game, as sophomore Matthew McAree (Manhasset, N.Y. / Manhasset) assisted on the score.  Following a pair of Cardinal scores, Kozak scored another goal to notch his first career hat trick as a  Royal. Junior Chris Crapanzano (Basking Ridge, N.J. / Ridge) rounded out the scoring in the first half for Scranton and the Royals trailed 9-5 at the half time break.

Catholic scored four unanswered goals to start the second half before McAree ended the run with a last minute goal to end the third quarter. Junior Chris Berger (Groton, Mass. / Littleton) picked up the assist on McAree's goal. 

McAree found the back of the net again to start the fourth period, this time off an assist from sophomore Andrew Lord (Havertown, Pa. / Haverford). Following a pair of Cardinal goals, McAree notched a hat trick of his own. Sophomore Seamus O'Callaghan (Bethpage, N.Y. / Chaminade) scored his second goal of the season in the late stages of the fourth quarter but Catholic continued to add to its tally and secured a 19-10 win over the Royals. 

Crapanzano recorded a game-high 12 ground balls while junior Colin Pierce (Chatham, N.J. / Chatham) earned five caused turnovers for Scranton. Freshman goalkeeper Evan Rosa (Weehawken, N.J. / Pennington School) finished with 19 saves in the game. 

The Royals will return to action on Wednesday when they host Montclair St. at 4:00 PM at Weiss Field.

--ROYALS--