GENEVA, N.Y.—The Hobart College lacrosse team held on for a 14-13 upset victory over nationally-ranked Lehigh on Stiles Field in the Poole Family Sports Dome this afternoon. It was Hobart's first nationally-ranked win since knocking off then No.20 Bryant in 2016.
Hobart (2-0) was led offensively by
Ryan Archer who had a game-high six points on three goals and three assists.
Tommy Mott (2g, 1a) and
Anthony Dattellas also had three-point games in the win. Faceoff man
Adam Shea had three ground balls and won 14-of-28 restarts. Seven different players had a caused turnover in the game.
Kevin Holtby made a season-high 14 saves in the victory. His biggest save of the game came with a second remaining as Lehigh's Dakota Eierman looked to force overtime.
The Mountain Hawks (1-1) were led by Scott Cole, who had a game-high four goals. He added an assist to finish the game with five points. Three additional Lehigh players had two goals. Teddy Leggett brought in a game-high four ground balls. Mike Sisselberger had three ground balls and won 14-of the-28 restarts. James Spence played the opening 58:35 in goal and made nine saves for the Mountain Hawks.
Lehigh had a slight 47-45 edge in shots, but Hobart won the ground ball battle, 25-23.
A tightly contested battle right from the opening whistle, the teams ended the first quarter tied 2-2.
Tommy Mott opened the scoring five minutes into the contest. His sixth goal of the season was unassisted. Cole tied the game with 3:13 left in the opening quarter. Just over a minute later, James Green pocketed his first collegiate goal. The Mountain Hawks tied the game just as the horn sounded to end the first quarter. It was Cole's second goal of the game.
The second quarter was equally as tight with the teams trading goals. Christian Mule' ripped home a feed from Tommy Schelling to give the Mountain Hawks its first lead of the game.
John Herlihy answered just over a minute later. Hobart regained the lead on
Anthony Dattellas' second goal of the season, but the lead was short lived as Quinn Armstrong scored to make it 4-4. Mott's seventh goal of the season was assisted by
Alex Rosa. The man-up gave Hobart a 5-4 lead at the time. Cole completed his hat trick with 1:07 left in the first half off a feed from Eierman. Archer's fourth goal of the season and first of the game gave Hobart a 6-5 lead heading into the halftime break.
Lehigh tied the game for a fourth time on an Andrew Mapstone goal to open the third quarter. His man-up goal was assisted by Schelling. After Dattellas notched his third goal of the game, Schelling scored back-to-back goals to give Lehigh an 8-7 lead.
Sam Ward and Matt Marker traded man-up goals as Lehigh took a 9-8 lead with 5:35. Hobart scored the game's next three goals to take an 11-9 lead into the fourth quarter.
Bradley Simas started the run with 3:41 left in the frame. Fifty seconds later, Rosa converted a man-up opportunity.
William Delano capped the streak with a minute left.
Lehigh made it a one-goal game, just over two minutes into the fourth quarter. Mule' fired home a shot for his sixth goal of the season. Hobart put the game just out of reach with a three-goal run early in the fourth quarter. Herlihy scored his sixth goal of the season before Archer completed his hat trick with back-to-back goals. The Mountain Hawks made it interesting with three straight goals in the final five minutes of regulation. Eierman, Cole and Armstrong scored for Lehigh. Hobart called a time out with 10 seconds remaining to set up a final defensive stand. Out of the break, Eierman dodged around the back of the net and fired a shot on the cage that was turned aside by Holtby.
The Statesmen will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 25, when it begins a four-game road trip against Colgate. Faceoff in Hamilton, New York is scheduled for 5 p.m.
