2 Late Goals Sink ERAU Men in the 11-10 Road Loss to Belmont Abbey; Needham 3G/1A, Kirk’s 4 CTOs in Loss
Hagerty alum Christian Hofer with 2G, Dwyer’s Kerr 7 saves in 30 minutes
via ERAU press release/website
Men’s Lacrosse Drops Tough Decision to Belmont Abbey, 11-10
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – On a rain-soaked field at Belmont Abbey, the Embry-Riddle men’s lacrosse team dropped a heartbreaker to the Crusaders, 11-10, on Saturday afternoon. Belmont Abbey had been ranked or receiving votes much of the year, another tough test for the 2024 Eagles.
ERAU (3-3) once again got great games out of Marcus Needham (3g, 1a) and Pete Abbes (2g, 1a), with Christian Hofer also finding the back of the net twice, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Belmont Abbey (2-5) attack. Both Reid Kerr (7 saves) and Carter Groezinger (5 saves) split halves between the posts in the effort.
On rough field conditions, with any ball on the ground unable to roll effectively, the game started as a back-and-forth affair. After Needham opened up the scoring with an unassisted goal, BAC added one right back. At 6:19 in the first, Coleman Jacobs (2a) found Abbes to take the lead, 2-1, but the Crusaders again evened the ledger just a minute later. But Hofer and Needham registered the last two goals of the frame, giving the Eagles a 4-2 advantage after the first.
Belmont Abbey won the second quarter, however, 5-2. They got an early goal in the second, but Needham registered an early hat trick, before Isaiah Hines netted his first goal of the day to make it 6-3. From there, though, the Crusaders reeled off five straight goals to end the second and start the third, going up 8-6 with 14:52 to play in the third quarter.
Abbes found a way to get to the back of the net to stem the tide, then Christopher Harper added another to tie things back up at 8-8 at the 8:50 mark in the third period. Belmont Abbey did take a lead next, but Abbes found Trey Dring with under a minute left in the frame to make it 9-9 as the final period got underway.
Hofer went unassisted midway through the frame, giving light to the Eagles, but BAC scored two in the last four minutes to eventually stop the Eagles in their tracks and escape with the win.
Next up, ERAU will stick on the road as the squad head to Alabama on Saturday March 16 for a 1 p.m. showdown with Alabama Huntsville.
