NO. 11 BUCKNELL CHALLENGED IN 10-5 PATRIOT LEAGUE TITLE CLINCHING VICTORY AGAINST COLGATE 

April 14, 2001

HAMILTON, N.Y. -- Youthful offense with three goals apiece from freshman attackman Wes Fetchet (New Canaan, Conn.) and sophomore attackman Dennis Geraghty (Kings Park, N.Y.) helped No. 11 Bucknell University clinch the Patriot League men's lacrosse regular-season title with a 10-5 victory against Colgate University Saturday afternoon at Tyler's Field.

Bucknell, which is 5-0 heading into their final Patriot League contest with Lehigh on April 28, clinched the regular-season crown and an automatic berth into the NCAA Divison I men's lacrosse tournament over current second-place Hobart which is 4-1. Even if Bucknell were to fall against Lehigh and end up tied with Hobart (which has last-place Holy Cross remaining on it schedule), the Bison would still win the title having defeated Hobart 12-4 on March 31.

Despite the 10-5 final, Colgate put forth one of its strongest efforts of the season battling to a 3-3 draw at the end of the first half. Fetchet put Bucknell on the board first at 10:57 of the first quarter from Andrew Copelan (Pittsford, N.Y.) who finished with three helpers on the afternoon.

Colgate answered right back with a goal from David Dobbins (Webster, N.Y.) on a feed from Matt Cihon (Skaneateles, N.Y.) at 9:49 of the first. Copelan gave Bucknell the lead once again at 4:25 with an unassisted marker, but Colgate's Eamon DePeter (Nyack, N.Y.) evened the score at 2-2 on a pass from Parker Gibson (Newtown, Pa.) with just six ticks left on the clock in the first quarter.

After withstanding a three-minute man-down defensive challenge which was whistled on Dobbins for a stick under the legal limit, Colgate took its only lead of the contest at the 9:25 mark of the second quarter with an unassisted goal by Ian Franke (Duxbury, Mass.). However, the lead was short-lived when just under a minute later Geraghty evened the game from Michael Cheng (Floral Park, N.Y) and the two teams went to the locker room tied at 3-3.

Bucknell's defensive unit was strong throughout the entire contest limiting Colgate to just 16 total shots and just eight of those shots were on goal. The Bison defense started to turn up the intensity in the second half limiting Colgate to just one shot on goal in the third and fourth quarters. While the "D" was doing it's job, Bucknell's offense was ignited scoring three goals in the third and four in the final quarter.

Geraghty started a 5-0 run for the Bison with his second of the game at 10:34 of the third from Copelan. Then Justin Slama (Chestertown, Md.) added an unassisted goal to take a 6-4 lead at the end of three. Fetchet continued the offensive charge with his third goal of the afternoon from Kelly Hogue (Painted Post, N.Y.) just seven seconds into the fourth quarter. Cheng scored his first of two goals in the quarter to build the lead to 8-4. Geraghty closed out the run with his third goal of the day from Copelan at 8:47.

Cihon cut the lead to 9-5 with Colgate's only shot on goal of the quarter with 3:52 remaining, but the comeback wasn't going to happen against the strong Bucknell defense.

BUCKNELL GOALS: Fetchet (3), Geraghty (3), Cheng (2), Copelan, Slama

BUCKNELL ASSISTS: Copelan (3), Cheng (2), Hogue

COLGATE GOALS: Cihon, DePeter, Dobbins, Franke, Watts

COLGATE ASSISTS: Cihon, DePeter, Gerken, Gibson