March 31, 2012

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer men's lacrosse team continues its four-game road trip on Saturday, this time headed west to the Air Force Academy for a 3 p.m. Saturday headliner.

 

After dropping a 17-8 tilt to Towson on  March 21^st, the Bears (1-9) have had 10 days to prep for an Air Force team that comes into Saturday's game at 4-4 overall. These same two teams met a year ago in the Bears' inaugural season with the Falcons taking a 14-5 victory over the Bears in Macon. Sophomore Harry Baker had a goal and an assist to lead the Bears in last year's game.

 

LAST TIME OUT – March 21, 2012

MACON, Ga. – Coming off the program's first Division I victory last Friday (March 18), the Mercer men's lacrosse team faced a unique challenge on Wednesday night playing a team that with a win would record its 400^th in program history.

Wednesday's game featured a Bears program (1-9) in just its second year against a Towson team that entered its 54^th season this year. Towson's experience and pedigree proved to be too much for the Bears as Mercer fell 17-8 on what turned out to be a historic evening at Johnny Unitas Stadium.

SCOUTING THE FALCONS

Air Force downed fellow A-Sun school Jacksonville on Tuesday night in Jacksonville 11-8 to snap a two-game skid. Air Force was picked to finish fifth in the ECAC preseason poll and will be the third ECAC opponent the Bears have faced this season  (Ohio St., Bellarmine).

 

The Falcons are outscoring their opponents, 88-79 on the year and are led by freshman attackman, Keith Dreyer who has posted 32 points on the strength of 13 goals and 19 assists.

 

The Falcons' goalkeeper Austin Fox has started in all eight games while maintaining a 10.51 goals against average with 79 saves and a 4-4 record.   

 

GAME NOTES

-Several Bears rank among the nation's best in several statistical categories through the midway point of the 2012 season. Freshman midfielder and faceoff specialist, Justin Evans is fifth in the country in ground balls this season, as he averages 7.3 ground balls per game.

 

A large reason for those numbers is because of Evans' ability in the faceoff. Evans is also 31^st in the country with a face-off win percentage at 0.528 (112-122). 

 

-Sophomore defender Alex Goldsberry has followed up his strong freshman campaign, by posting 16 caused turnovers so far in 2012. He is currently 22^nd in the country in caused turnovers per game.