The Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse team defeated Bellarmine University in a 20-7 rout in front of a packed crowd at the Quinnipiac Field Hockey & Lacrosse Turf Field on Saturday afternoon.
Junior Jack Oppenheimer led the Bobcats (6-5, 3-3 ECAC) with a career-high six goals, while Kevin Kelly and Billy Alessi added three goals each. Oppenheimer had missed practice early in the beginning of the week due to injuries and didn’t get the start Saturday, but still managed to make an impact.
“Once I got in there I just got my focus together and got my game together and just took it to the team,” Oppenheimer said.
Historically, Quinnipiac and Bellarmine (8-6, 2-4 ECAC) have always had close battles, with the previous two games being one goal victories by the Bobcats. And with both teams entering Saturday’s game with the same conference record, it seemed poised be another nail biter. Instead, it was domination from the Bobcats.
“We really worked this week to focus on winning every game,” Quinnipiac head coach Eric Fekete said. “That gave us a good base at practice this week, and the guys worked really hard and to put it all together it was a great team win.”
The Bobcats’ victory came after they lost two games in a row, including four of their last five, and moved them up in the ECAC standings.
“We don’t like losing,” Fekete said. “We were embarrassed last Saturday and we weren’t going to have it again. I think we responded the way we liked to, which is to play the best lacrosse we can play.”
The Bobcats led 3-2 early in the first period when they went on a 7-0 run to take a 10-2 lead. The run was sparked by Oppenheimer, who scored at the 5:59 mark and immediately after at 5:40 to give them a 5-2 lead. The Bobcats closed the first period on goals by Kelly with 12 seconds left and Oppenheimer again with three seconds remaining to put them up 8-2.
“Once [Oppenheimer] catches fire he’s pretty hard to stop, and that’s what happened today,” Fekete said.
The second period was more of a defensive battle, as the Bobcats and Knights both scored two goals and the Bobcats led 10-4 heading into halftime.
In the second half, the Bobcats scored eight of the final 10 goals in the game and the Knights never came back within seven goals as the Bobcats secured the 20-7 victory.
The Bobcats return to action on Sunday when they host Bryant University in a non-conference matchup at the Quinnipiac Field Hockey & Lacrosse Turf Field.
Photo credits: Joe Pelletier
