The Bears men's lacrosse team hosted the Bucknell University Bisons and fell in a competitive game, 14-16.
It was a cold 11 a.m. start time for the Bears as they hosted the second game of their homestand. Despite the cold, both teams came to play.
Both teams traded goals throughout the first half. The Bisons' Alston Tarry and Connor Davis combined for three goals with Davis scoring two. The Bears matched with Matthew Winegardner scoring one and Carl Klepper scoring two to tie the game 3-3.
The Bears opened the second quarter with a score from Taylor Dooley. The Bisons, however, matched with three straight scores from Davis, Jack Feda and Frankie Higgins to put the Bisons up 6-4.
Sean Goldsmith answered for the Bears, but his goal was canceled out by the Bisons' Harry Wellford bringing the score to 7-5. Just before the end of the half, Klepper scored again to bring the score to 7-6.
The second half started where it ended as Goldsmith found the goal again to tie the score 7-7. Bucknell tacked on two more from Wellford and Davis to go up 9-7. The Bears answered with two of their own scores from Daniel Shumake and Goldsmith to tie the game 9-9.
The teams traded goal after goal, but Bucknell came up with two more thanks to Davis and Tarry giving the Bisons a 12-10 lead heading into the fourth.
Mercer immediatly evened the score at the beginning of the quarter, but everything fell apart soon after. The Bisons scored four straight with Jack Feda scoring too, Matthew Barkauskas scoring one, and Davis scoring the final goal for the Bisons. Down 12-16, the Bears fought back with two more goals from Dooley and Klepper, but it was too late.
The Bears travel to Annapolis on Feb. 12 to play Navy for their next game.
Keith Holmes Jr. ‘22 is a journalism and creative writing double major who has worked with The Cluster as general staff since his Sophomore year. Keith has received Best in SNO awards for his sports articles along with years of work at Mercer’s ESPN3 branch. Keith spends his free time playing video games and writing fiction around campus.
