SCRANTON, Pa. – The No. 2 seed University of Scranton men's lacrosse team (13-5) opened up a 7-1 halftime lead and cruised to a 13-4 victory over the No. 3 seed Catholic Cardinals (6-10) in Landmark semifinal action on a rainy Wednesday night at Weiss Field in Scranton.

With the victory, the Royals advance to Saturday's Landmark Championship game to face top-seeded Elizabethtown who was a 10-5 winner over Susquehanna in the night's other semifinal. Action at ETown's Wolf Field is slated to get underway at 1 p.m.

This marks the Royals' first appearance in the Landmark title game since 2015 and the fourth in program history.

Catholic opened the scoring at the 10:28 mark of the first quarter and junior Andrew Lord (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) answered just 0:56 later for the Royals to tie things at one apiece. The 1-1 deadlock held for the final nine plus minutes of the first quarter until the hosts beat the buzzer as freshman Jason Kozak (Floral Park, N.Y./Floral Park Memorial) fed junior Matthew McAree (Manhasset, N.Y./Manhasset) for a 2-1 lead.

The second quarter was where Scranton began to take control of the game as they outscored the Cardinals by a 5-0 margin including a goal and two assists from senior Christopher Crapanzano (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge). Crapanzano struck with 9:54 left in the quarter to make it 3-1 and later added assists on goals from junior Joe Boyle (Huntington, N.Y./St. Anthony's) and senior Mitchell Kozak (Floral Park, N.Y./Floral Park Memorial). Kozaks' tally with 2:55 left in the period gave the Royals an eventual 7-1 halftime lead.

In the third quarter, Catholic scored two of the first three goals and drew back within five at 8-3 before Crapanzano won the ensuing faceoff and answered the goal seconds later. The Cardinals would not score over the final 10:07 of the quarter and Boyle and freshman Kyle Holmes (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan) both found the back of the net for a commanding 11-3 advantage after three.

Scranton continued to play strong defense throughout the fourth quarter and goals from Kozak and McAree accounted for the 13-4 victory.

Boyle and Kozak registered three goals apiece, while Crapanzano added four points on two goals and two assists. McAree also added two goals, an assist and two ground balls.

Elsewhere for Scranton, Lord added a goal, two ground balls and three caused turnovers and sophomore Zachariah Palinkas (Emmaus, Pa./Emmaus) collected a career-best 11 ground balls.

The 11 ground balls ties the most in a game by a Scranton player this season as Crapanzano had previously done so twice.

Freshman Declan Allen (Garden City, N.Y./Millbrook) continued his impressive play in goal with 11 saves on 15 shots for the Royals.

A full preview of Saturday's Landmark Championship game will be posted on Friday at athletics.scranton.edu.

--ROYALS--