Reed Dempsey

Contributing Writer

The No. 18 Bison men’s lacrosse team traveled south to Newark, Del. on Feb. 9 for its season opener against the University of Delaware Blue Hens. Three goals by Todd Heritage ’14 in front of an 11-save performance from veteran goalie Kyle Feeney ’13 helped the Bison tally their first win of the year.

The high-powered Bison offense came out firing, as Chase Bailey ’13 put the team up 1-0 just 39 seconds into the contest. Over the next 16 minutes, the Bison offense recorded four more goals, featuring career firsts for Brock Ghelfi ’16 and Sean Doyle ’16, as the defense kept the Blue Hens off the scoreboard with five straight saves by Feeney.

Delaware began to find its groove in the middle of the second quarter, hitting the back of the net three times over a six minute stretch to bring the Bison lead down to two.

With 2:26 remaining in the first half, Thomas Flibotte ’16 took the ball from the wing, beat his defender and scored top-right for the first goal of his career.

Delaware opened the second half with three straight goals to tie the game at six, but it was short-lived as the Bison took advantage of a man-up opportunity to regain their lead when Peter Burke ’14 fed Heritage for his third goal of the match. The Blue Hens fired back with another two goals to start the fourth quarter and take their first lead of the game.

Although the Bison were trailing for the first time, the team never doubted itself.

“Many others on the team, including myself, did not ever have the thought of a loss cross our minds,” Heritage said. “We knew we had to keep doing exactly what we had been doing the whole game and work for longer possessions to let our defense have energy.”

Just two minutes later, David Dickson ’15 (three assists) found Ghelfi to tie the game up at eight. Following three minutes of back and forth play, the Orange and Blue worked the ball around on offense for nearly a minute before Flibotte dodged his defender and found himself open for a shot, beating the Delaware goalie lower-left off a bounce.

Over the final three minutes, Feeney’s defense completely locked down the Blue Hens, including a save by the veteran goaltender with 22 seconds remaining.

“I think this is the best the D has looked after game one in my four years here,” Feeney said.

The Bison will travel to Maryland to face Mount St. Mary’s for their second game of the season on Feb. 17.