Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A battle to stay in the running for a first-round postseason tournament bye went Lehigh's way here Saturday in an 11-7 win over 16th-ranked Colgate.

The Raiders tied a season high with 24 turnovers. Sixteen of those game in the second half, when Lehigh outscored Colgate 6-3 and broke away from a 5-4 halftime advantage.

"You can't play a good team like Lehigh and turn the ball over 24 times," Raiders head coach Mike Murphy said. "They get a lot of credit for causing those turnovers, but we were careless with the ball on both sides of the field.

"We had three failed clears, and there were even some situations where we cleared the ball and then turned it over. It just wasn't a good game for us. We were out-coached; we were out-played – all the credit needs to go to Lehigh."

Colgate was 16-of-19 on clears, including 14-of-15 after the opening quarter. But Lehigh did an excellent job of maintaining possession, especially in the first and third quarters when they outshot the Raiders a combined 23-5 and outscored them 6-2.

"They are very much a possession team," Murphy said. "They're very smart with the ball and they are patient. They're not going to take just any shot; they're going to work for the best shot.

"We did a good job of buckling down and playing defense. We would answer goal-for-goal with them before they went on a little bit of a run in the third quarter."

Third-Period Burst
Lehigh led 5-4 at the half and broke the game open with a 4-1 scoring advantage in the third stanza. The first two goals came in the opening 3:18 of the half. Colgate's Cameron Williams scored his second of the game and sixth of the season to draw the Raiders within 7-5, but Lehigh answered with two more before the period ended and then scored in the opening 27 second of the fourth to make it 10-5.

"You kick yourself looking at it with 20-20 hindsight glasses on because maybe I should have taken a timeout when Bobby cleared it," said Murphy, referring to a Bobby Lawrence clear that was turned over and converted quickly on the other end.

"But you want to save your timeouts for the fourth quarter because you may need them if it becomes a one-goal game. I could Monday-morning quarterback the whole time."

In addition to Williams, Eric Foote scored twice – the first handing Colgate a 1-0 lead with 6:36 left in the opening period. Lehigh scored twice to go on top 2-1 by the end of the first, but then the teams see-sawed goals throughout the second for a 5-4 Mountain Hawks advantage at intermission.

Williams, Kevin Adams and Brendon McCann scored for Colgate in the second quarter.

Foote found the net with just over 11 minutes left in the game to pull the Raiders within 10-6, but they could get no closer and Matt Clarkson's goal in the final 90 seconds finished the scoring at 11-7.

Shots finished 35-21 in Lehigh's favor, with shots on goal 25-13. Colgate claimed a 34-33 edge in ground balls and faceoffs were split 11-11. The Raiders were 1-of-5 on extra-man opportunities to Lehigh's 2-of-6. Colgate had the aforementioned 24 turnovers to Lehigh's 17, and Raiders freshman Brandon Burke just missed matching his season high with 14 saves. Lehigh's Matt Poillon had seven.

Three Points for McCann
McCann had a three-point game with two assists to go with his 14th goal of the season. McCann is second on the team with 26 points. Clarkson, Williams and Jimmy Ryan added assists.

Ryan Walsh didn't score but had a season-high six ground balls and a career-high four caused turnovers. Kevin Boyle picked up five ground balls and matched his season-high with three caused turnovers, while Lawrence posted four ground balls and three caused turnovers.

Lehigh's 11 goals came from nine different scorers. Dan Taylor finished with two goals and two assists, and Kurtis Kaunas added back-to-back goals late in the third period.

Lehigh holds on to third place at 5-2 in the Patriot League. The Mountain Hawks are 9-3 overall.

Colgate stays in fourth place in the standings. The Raiders are now 7-4 overall and 3-3 in conference play, tied with Bucknell at 3-3. Colgate, of course, holds the tiebreaker over the Bison by virtue of its 9-8 win back on March 1.

Fourth place is important as that team hosts the No. 5 seed in an April 22 quarterfinal. The Raiders have home games remaining aginast Holy Cross next Saturday and against Army on Friday, April 18.

"Our guys are a resilient bunch," Murphy said. "We realize that we've got two big games with Holy Cross and Army on the horizon, and we've got to dust ourselves off and get ready to play those games. We've got to get ready for Holy Cross."