BOX SCORE

Lower Gwynedd, Pa. (Feb. 26, 2009) – Alvernia University (0-1) got behind early and fell short in a late comeback Thursday afternoon falling to Carthage College (1-0), 10-8 in non-conference men's lacrosse action at Gwynedd-Mercy College.

The Redmen are on a week-long trip from Wisconsin and will face Gwynedd-Mercy on Saturday before returning home.

Carthage put five goals on the board in the first quarter of Thursday's game scoring three times on the man-advantage while Alvernia served a three minute, non-releasable penalty for an illegal stick. The Redmen pushed the lead to 6-1 scoring a man-up goal five minutes into the second quarter. Alvernia took nine penalties on the day and Carthage took advantage going 7-for-9 in man-up situations.

Alvernia stopped a streak of five straight goals for Carthage when Chris Baker (Exeter, Pa./Exeter) scored assisted by Chris Bakes (Barto, Pa./Boyertown) with three minutes to go before halftime, but Carthage tallied the final goal of the half when Dan Norkewicz scored unassisted with 42 seconds on the clock—again on the man-advantage.

Carthage opened the second-half scoring with one of five on the day from Keegan Bowman, and the Crusaders finally put together a small streak when Dan Hoffstetter (Center Valley, Pa./Southern Lehigh) and Bakes scored back-to-back.

Carthage scored another man-up goal with 4:20 left in the third quarter, but Alvernia got that one back when a pass back from midfield by a Redmen defender skipped past the goalie and into the empty net. Bakes followed with the first goal of the fourth quarter, but Carthage scored again on the man-advantage for a 10-6 lead with three minutes to play.

Alvernia, which found a bright spot winning 13-of-20 faceoffs, gained possession on the ensuing restart and freshman Louis Vetrano (Centereach, N.Y./Centereach) found the back of the net assisted by Tom Casper (Milwaukee, Wisc./Marquette Univ.) with 2:47 to play.

Freshman Jon Lozoskie (Fallston, Md./Fallston) tallied the final goal of the game with 42 seconds to play assisted by Hoffstetter.

Freshman Eric Jones (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) made 15 saves in his first college start. His counterpart, Daniel Hurst finished with 11 saves in the win. Bakes led the Crusaders with two goals and five other players tallied one each for Alvernia.

Alvernia will face Mt. Saint Vincent in Riverdale, N.Y., on Saturday.

Carthage 10, Alvernia 8