SCRANTON, Pa. – Sophomore Kyle Holmes (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan) scored a career-high five goals and The University of Scranton men's lacrosse team (6-6, 4-0 Landmark) used a big second half to pull away from Catholic in a 16-8 victory over the rival Cardinals (6-6, 2-2 Landmark) on Saturday afternoon at Weiss Field in Scranton.
The Royals held an 8-5 halftime lead and then outscored Catholic by an 8-3 margin in the second half to preserve a fourth straight victory.
Catholic scored the first three goals of the game and led 3-0 just 4:46 in before freshman Myles McCutcheon (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) got the Royals on the board with a feed from senior Matthew McAree (Manhasset, N.Y./Manhasset). This began a run of five consecutive goals for the hosts and senior Joe Boyle (Huntington, N.Y./St. Anthony's) found the back of the net for a 5-3 edge before McAree's goal in the final second of the period made it a 6-4 game after one. In the second quarter, the Cardinals cut the lead to one at 6-5 before goals from Holmes and junior Jonathan Mayan (Gilbertsville, Pa./Boyertown Area) who found the back of the net with less than five seconds to play extended the advantage to 8-5 at halftime.
Holmes opened the scoring just 1:49 into the third quarter and tallied a total of three goals in the stanza as the Royals made it a 12-7 game. After Catholic's Fitz McLaughlin struck for a goal just 0:41 into the fourth, Scranton scored the final four goals of the game to put things out of reach and remain unbeaten in Landmark Conference play.
The five goals for Holmes surpassed his previous career-best of four that had been set on three occasions, while McCutcheon, senior Alex Eglitis (Randolph, N.J./Randolph) and junior Colin Hughes (Massapequa, N.Y./Chaminade) added two goals apiece. McAree contributed a goal and three assists.
Graduate student Colin Pierce (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) collected a game-high nine ground balls and junior Zachariah Palinkas (Emmaus, Pa./Emmaus) added seven ground balls to go along with a career-high five caused turnovers.
In goal for the Royals, sophomore Declan Allen (Garden City, N.Y./Millbrook) registered 14 saves.
Scranton will hit the road to battle Drew on Wednesday night with action slated to get underway at 7 p.m.
--ROYALS--
