WINCHESTER, Va. –The Frostburg State men's lacrosse team opened up the 2015 season in convincing fashion with a 13-4 victory over Shenandoah, Wednesday afternoon.
The Bobcats (1-0) improve to 5-0 in season-openers since restarting the varsity program prior to the 2011 season, with three of those wins coming against the Hornets (2-1). The Bobcats have outscored their opponents 59-24 in the last five season openers.
Senior Devin Colegrove had a hand in seven of the Bobcats' 13 goals (three goals, four assists) while classmate Chris Rios led both teams with four goals.
Aaron Paul got the Hornets' on the board early in the first quarter after burying a pass from Stephen LaTona, but Rios answered back with two unassisted goals to give FSU a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
FSU had roughly a goal a minute when, just 2:06 into the second quarter, junior Spenser Love found the back of the net off a helper from Colegrove and 1:15 later, Colegrove notched his own off a pass from senior Kreigh Kirby. Just over a minute later, Colegrove chipped in another assist on Rios' third goal of the game to put the Bobcats up 5-1 with 10:17 before halftime.
Freshman Keegan Colegrove knocked in his first career tally with 7:11 showing on the clock and it wasn't until 3:51 remaining when a Frostburg penalty gave Shenandoah a man-up situation and LaTona slipped one past Bobcat junior netminder Tom Kraemer.
However, 43 seconds later Love netted his second of the game with help from junior Tate Rolland and the Bobcats took a 7-2 lead into the locker room.
Frostburg outshot Shenandoah 25-3 in the first half and was a perfect 8-for-8 on clears.
FSU kept the pressure on as Rolland found Devin Colegrove just 41 seconds into the second half to put the Bobcats up 8-2.
Great defense on both ends of the field then kept scoring to a minimum, but with time winding down the Bobcats found another offensive threat in junior Nick Stailey as he finished a pass from Rolland with 3:47 to play in the third quarter to give Frostburg a 9-2 advantage heading into the final 15 minutes.
With 13:35 left in the game, Rios buried his final tally of the game off a pass from Devin Colegrove, but Shenandoah's LaTona answered back unassisted. Junior Blake Grudzien added the next two Bobcat goals, sandwiching them around a Hornet goal from Jack Greaney. Devin Colegrove then knocked in the final Bobcat goal with 6:27 to play and hand FSU a 13-4 win.
Junior Erik Geiser and sophomore Kyle Horak combined for 18-of-21 face-off wins and the red and black held the advantage in shots (54-12), ground balls (47-14) and went 15-of-17 in clears and had six fewer turnovers than the Hornets.
Six Bobcats found their name on the stat sheet, with goals from Devin Colegrove, Rios, Love (two goals), Grudzien (2g), Keegan Colegrove (1g) and Stailey (1g). Rolland added three assists while Barnett, Cullison and Kirby had one each. Kraemer finished with two saves to pick up the win.
The Hornets' were led by LaTona's two goals and two assists. Paul and Greaney chipped in one goal apiece. Ben Judy stopped 21 shots in the cage, including 12 in the second half.
The Bobcats continue the non-conference portion of their schedule Saturday when they travel to Lebanon Valley for a 1:00 p.m. face-off.
