BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Ninth-ranked Lehigh held Colgate to single goals in the third and fourth quarters and pulled away for a 13-9 victory here Friday afternoon in the Patriot League Men's Lacrosse Championship Semifinals.
 
The Raiders (3-7) played just as tough this day as they did last Friday at No. 9 Army and in Tuesday's 11-8 victory at Boston University. But Lehigh showed its top-seeded skills and found just enough offense to advance to Sunday's title game.
  James Caddigan, Jacob Sposita and Marshall Terres all scored two goals for the Raiders, who were held below 10 goals for just the second time this season. Brian Minicus assisted on four goals to continue his late-season points flurry.
 
This one took a while to get going, as the game was still scoreless for almost 10 minutes of the opening quarter. But Sposita broke the ice with 5:10 remaining and the teams played their way to an 8-7 Lehigh lead by halftime.
 
There were four ties in that opening half of play.
 
Lehigh (10-1) scored the first three goals of the third quarter to complete a 4-0 run and take control at 11-7 with 3:42 remaining. Colgate's Thomas Colucci answered on the ensuing faceoff with a win and then an unassisted goal – his second of the season – to narrow the margin to 11-8 through three.
 
Then just like in the third quarter, Colgate was held off the scoreboard until late in the fourth. Caddigan's second of the game with 4:04 remaining pulled the Raiders within 12-9, but that's as close as they could get.
 
Lehigh's John Sidorski scored three goals to go with three assists to lead all scorers.
 
From the Source
• Colgate head coach Matt Karweck: (On the season and final game) "We hit our stride right when we needed to. It's been an unbelievable year – in a lot of ways. Our guys spent a total of a month in quarantine over the course of the year and had to deal with so many things, but I'm so proud of our guys.
 
"Just a couple of weeks ago, we were out; and then we had new life. From that moment, we really took it to a new level. Our guys were focused, they went through finals and did so many things right to put them into position to play for a chance at the Patriot League championship game.
 
"We played great today. What a battle. We executed our game plan. When you lose by four goals, it's a bounce of the ball here and a save there that can change the whole momentum of the game. We played an unbelievable first half. We came out and we guarded, we stayed out of the penalty box, we cleared and we rode our tails off. The faceoff unit played great; don't look at the faceoff numbers because we caused turnovers after they had won possession on numerous occasions.
 
"I'm so proud of the way my coaches put the effort in – Coach Vossler at the faceoff-X and with our goalies, Coach Cooper with our offense and Coach Schneidman on the defense with me. We had an unbelievable game plan and we executed it.
 
"Ever since we got this new life, our guys were bought in to our program and what we were asking them to do and how to play. I'm just so proud of it from 1 to 44."
 
(On the Senior Class) "Our senior class did a great job of leading the charge at the end of how we want to be as a program, particularly captains James Caddigan and Mike Hawkins. They led the way in the locker room, off the field, on the field, all while battling injuries and playing a short season.
 
"It was a great challenge, and Mike and Jim are two of the greatest captains I've ever coached. I'm so proud of them and the senior class for going out like they did."
 
Stats of the Game
• The Raiders came into Friday clearing the ball at 72.9 percent but went 16-of-17 for their best percentage of the season (94.1).
• Minicus saw his streak of five straight multigoal games come to an end, but he did post 13 goals and 17 assists over his last six contests.
• His 40 points and 25 assists were both tops on the team.
• Mike Hawkins scored a goal and an assist to finish with a team-leading 19 goals. His 12 assists and 31 points were both second to Minicus.
• Terres in addition to his two goals added two caused turnovers for the first time in his career.
• Colucci and Owen Callahan were the ground ball leaders with four apiece.
• Thor Adamec pitched in three ground balls and two caused turnovers. He led the position players this season with 27 ground balls.
• Adamec and Donny Gayhardt shared team honors in caused turnovers with eight apiece.
 
Up Next
• Colgate's season is complete.