The Bison men’s lacrosse team faced a tough battle on Sunday against No. 11-ranked Lehigh at Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium, where they fell 18-6 to the Mountain Hawks. Lehigh was quick to take a lead early on in the game with four unanswered goals. This momentum carried the Mountain Hawks throughout the game and ultimately gave Lehigh their largest margin of victory over the Bison in program history.

Although Lehigh took an early lead, the Bison responded well in the second quarter, bringing the score to 5-2 with goals from Tommy Sopko ’21 and Harry Wellford ’23. Unfortunately, Lehigh did not let up, scoring five more unanswered goals to carry a 10-2 advantage into the half time.

Lehigh had strong play in the faceoff, contributing to their success in the match up against the Bison. Overall, the Mountain Hawks won 19 of 29 faceoffs in the game. For the Bison, Sopko netted a hat trick, bringing his season total of goals to 11. Welford contributed one goal and two helpers, Reid Delanois ’22 scooped up for four ground balls and caused a turnover.

Ben Clark ’21 saw action for the Orange and Blue in the goal, stopping 11 shots, while Daniel Parson ’23 contributed four saves.

“Lehigh is a really talented team this year and they came out firing. Before we knew it we were facing a huge deficit early in the game, one that seemed too large to overcome. Luckily, we can learn a lot from this game and apply it next weekend against Loyola. We’re really excited to get back after it this Saturday against another strong team,” Clark said.

Overall, Lehigh led in shots (50-38), shots on goal (33-21) and ground balls (52-20). The Mountain Hawks edged out the Bison causing 11 turnovers with contributions from several players on their team.

The Bison will be back to battle next week against Loyola Maryland for a 2 p.m. game on Saturday March 20 in Maryland.