Warriors Fall to Ithaca in Season Opener
Bombers' Nelligan Explodes for Six Goals
Box Score

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. --- Lycoming men’s lacrosse kicked off the 2006 season looking to make a splash on its new field at the Shangraw Athletic Complex, but Ithaca College spoiled the party in defeating the Warriors 14-7 on Saturday afternoon.  Lycoming drops to 0-1 on the season while the Bombers improve to 1-0.

Ithaca attacker Matt Nelligan had the first game all players hope for with six goals and two assists for eight total points.  Four of his tallies came before the intermission with three of them in the Bombers’ six-goal second period.

All seven Lycoming goals were split between a trio of Warriors.  Sophomore midfielder Justin Dixon (Baltimore, Md./North County) notched three tallies and an assist.  Fellow second-year players Matt Lando (Corning, N.Y./Corning Painted Post) and Jim Cusick (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) each recorded two goals and an assist.  Junior goalkeeper Matt Lyons (Radnor, Pa./Conestoga) went the distance between the pipes, sending away 15 shots.

Outside of Nelligan’s eight points and Doug Lumb’s two goals and two assists, the Bombers spread the scoring around to seven different players.  Logan Bobzien, Kevin Bush, Matt Cutter, Matt Pugliese, Mike Giunta, and Mike Cintineo picked up a goal apiece.  Andrew Zysk came away with one assist.

Things looked good for the Warriors in the beginning with Lando notching his first goal just 57 seconds into the contest.  Ithaca stormed back with a pair of goals, the first coming in the sixth minute from Pugliese.  Lumb notched his with 9:09 on the clock to give the Bombers a 3-2 advantage.

The Warriors and Cusick responded with two goals nearing the end of the first period with Lando assisting on the first score.  Ithaca tied the game on Nelligan’s first tally with 21 seconds left in the period.

The Bombers opened the second frame on a scoring frenzy, putting four unanswered goals on the board to open a 7-3 cushion.  Lumb and Nelligan recorded the first two goals on solid individual efforts.  Bush and Giunta put up the next two scores, both on helpers from Nelligan.

Dixon stopped the bleeding with 2:07 left before the half on an excellent individual effort directly from the face-off, but Nelligan regained the four-goal margin with his second tally of the period.  Lando brought the Warriors back to within three at 8-5 off a nice assist from Cusick with 13 seconds to play, but Nelligan closed the half’s scoring with his fourth tally of the game with less than one second on the scoreboard.

The third period opened with yet another quick score by the Warriors as Dixon sent home his second goal of the game just 11 seconds into the frame.  Ithaca didn’t seemed phased by the Warriors’ rapid score as Nelligan added his final two goals before the period ended to push the Bombers’ edge to 12-6.

The pace slowed a bit in the final period with very few good scoring chances within the first five minutes.  Cintineo broke the stagnation at the 9:56 mark, and Cutter followed a few minutes later with his score.  Dixon closed the game’s scoring with his third goal with just under two minutes to play.

Lycoming is next in action on Wednesday, March 1, as the Warriors travel to Eastern Connecticut State University for a non-conference contest.  Game time is set for 4:00 p.m. in Willimantic, Conn.