Lindenwood Box Score
N.C. State Box Score
BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford men's lacrosse team opened competition for the 2009 season last weekend as it traveled to Clemson, S.C. and Raleigh, N.C. for a pair of games. The Fighting Owls (1-1) had a warm-up scrimmage on Friday, Feb. 20 against Clemson, before facing Lindenwood University on Saturday and North Carolina State on Sunday. Harford fell to the Lions, 22-0, at the Clemson Club Field before edging out the Wolfpack, 6-5 on Sunday at Miller Intramural Field.
Sophomore Chad Palmer (Fallston, Md./Fallston) and Joe Rosenklde (Monkton, Md./North Harford) led Harford with three points (1g, 2a) against N.C. State, while Mike Coursault led Lindenwood with six points (5g, 1a) in the win and Chris Jehling contributed six points on one goal and five assists. Rocky Pagliei was the high-scorer for N.C. State as he tallied a hat trick on the day.
The Lindenwood offense overpowered the Owls on Saturday, holding a 44-17 advantage in shots and dominated the face-off circle, winning 21 of 26 battles. Freshman goalkeeper Brian Burrill (Forest Hill, Md./C. Milton Wright) did manage to stop about 50% of the Lions attempts, tallying 21 saves on the day, but the Owl offense couldn't manage a shot past Lindenwood's Tim Jennings.
The Owls bounced back from the loss on Sunday, as freshman Andrew Gilpin (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) scored just five minutes into the first quarter, off a feed from Rosenklde. Gilpin's goal would not the score at one, however, as the Wolfpack drew first blood with an unassisted tally from David Schadel just 40 seconds into the period.
After about five minutes of scoreless play, Harford would quickly build a two-goal lead after Palmer notched his unassisted man-up score with 5:09 remaining and Rosenklde connected off Gilpin's pass just 11 seconds later at the 4:58 mark to give Harford a 3-1 lead.
Pagliei would cut the Owl lead to one with his first goal of the game, an unassisted affair at the 2:39 mark, but freshman Branden Kenny (Edgewood, Md./Edgewood) would add another score for Harford just 16 seconds later off a pass from Palmer to give the Owls a 4-2 lead which they would carry into the second quarter.
The Fighting Owls didn't waste much time after the start of period, as freshman Jake Crenshaw (Hamilton, Md./North Harford) found the back of the net after Rosenklde's feed to give Harford a comfortable, 5-2 lead with 13:19 left in the second.
N.C. State would battle back with three straight scores over the next 30 minutes or so, beginning with Pagliei's second score of the day, once again unassisted, with 1:43 remaining in the second.
After a scoreless third quarter, Harford saw itself on the plus side of a two-goal advantage, but Pagliei added the last goal of his trifecta at the 11:41 mark to cut the lead to one. Less than a minute-and-a-half later, Kyle Cullen notched his own unassisted goal at the 10:16 mark to knot the score at five goals each.
The teams slugged it out for the next nine minutes without a score, before freshman Craig Hanzelka (Edgewood, Md./Edgewood) tallied what would become the game-winner off Palmer's pass as Harford edged out the Wolfpack, 6-5.
Burrill made 14 saves on the day, while his counterpart, Brandon Novak tallied 11 stops.
The Fighting Owls return to action on Saturday, Feb. 28 when they host the Harford County branch of the Crease Monkeys for a scrimmage at Harford Stadium at 1:00 p.m. and officially open their home season on Wednesday, March 4 when they welcome Delaware Tech-Terry for a 7:00 p.m. game.
