Hampden-Sydney Lacrosse

GRANTHAM, PA (March 14, 2007)—Hampden-Sydney's lacrosse team increased their winning streak to four games as the 13th-ranked Tigers scored a 7-5 victory over Messiah College in Grantham, PA on Wednesday. Senior Ryan Harrington (Dallas, TX/Plano) and junior Kelly Mattie (Charlottesville, VA/St. Anne's-Belfied) scored three and two goals respectively to lead the Tigers to victory. With the win, Hampden-Sydney improves to 4-0 on the season, while the Falcons fall to 0-2 overall.

Only three minutes into the game, Hampden-Sydney found itself in an unfamiliar position, trailing their opponent. Down 1-0, the Tigers responded with four unanswered goals, two coming from Harrington. Each team would add another goal in the final ten minutes of the second quarter, giving Hampden-Sydney a 5-2 halftime advantage.

The third quarter was much of the same as both teams' defenses seemed to control the pace. After a Falcon goal, Kelly Mattie scored his second goal of the game off a William Shell (Alexandria, VA/St. Stephen's) pass to increase the Tiger lead to 6-3. In the fourth quarter, the Falcons scored two goals to cut the Tiger lead to one, 6-5, with 6:58 remaining to play. Two minutes later, the Tigers' Ryan Harrington sealed the victory as he notched his third goal of the game to give Hampden-Sydney the 7-5 decision.

Harrington and Mattie led the Tigers with three and two goals respectively. Shell scored one goal and dished out two assists, junior Joe Daugherty (Charlottesville, VA/St. Anne's-Belfield) added one goal. Thomas Jennings (Murfreesboro, TN/Webb School) recorded two assists, while Andrew Mahoney (Littleton, CO/Littleton) assisted one goal.

Senior Scott Russell (Darien, CT/Darien) improved his record to 4-0 as he made 13 saves for a .722 save-percentage. The Tigers were only able to win 4-of-16 face-offs as freshman Whit Kelley (Raleigh, NC/Ravenscroft) went 0-for-5, and senior Middleton Smith (Stevenson, MD/ Boys’ Latin) won 4-of-11 face-offs and grabbed two groundballs.

Hampden-Sydney will return to action on Saturday, March 17, as the Tigers will travel to Radnor, PA to face Cabrini College. The game is scheduled to start at 1:00 pm.