WILKES-BARRE, Pa.- Men's lacrosse opened up its 2020 campaign with an 11-7 setback against King's College on Wednesday afternoon. The Mighty Macs held a lead after the first quarter but couldn't hand the Monarchs (2-0) their first loss of the season.
Denton States made a career-high 23 saves for Immaculata (0-1) while David Azzarano, Steve Long and Sean Evans each scored two goals. Alec Martin led King's with three goals as Michael O'Brien and Zach Anderson tallied two goals apiece.
Martin scored the first goal of the game to give King's a 1-0 lead in the early goings, but Immaculata answered with two goals to hold a lead after the first quarter of play. Azzarano and Sean Evans each netted goals to give Immaculata a 2-1 lead after the first 15 minutes of game play.
King's had a strong start to the second quarter and scored three unanswered goals. O'Brien scored twice during the run while Jared Gambino tallied the other goal to give the Monarchs a 4-2 lead.
Steve Long, the leading goal scorer from a year ago, scored his first goal of the season to trim the margin to one with just under five minutes until halftime. King's scored with only 25 seconds left in the first half to hold a 5-3 lead at intermission.
The Monarchs out shot the Mighty Macs 26-11 in the first 30 minutes, but States stood tall in goal and made 13 saves to keep the deficit at only two.
King's opened up the third quarter with a pair of goals to lead 7-3 with 12-minutes left in the frame. Immaculata capitalized on a man up situation when Ethan Johnson found the back of the net off a feed from Evans, making it 7-4 at the midway point of the third.
Long netted his second goal of the game two minutes later as King's led 7-5 with just over eight minutes left in the third quarter. The Monarchs used another strong close to a quarter as Trevor Douenias scored with under two minutes left in the frame and led 8-5 heading into the fourth.
Azzarano scored his second goal of his collegiate debut as it was 9-6 in favor of the Monarchs with with 10:59 left in the game. That would be the closest as the Monarchs kept the Mighty Macs at bay with a pair of goals.
Ethan Johnson served as the facilitator on the final goal by Evans as Immaculata fell 11-7 in the season opener. The Monarchs outshot Immaculata 60-26 and was successful on 22-of-24 clear attempts. Bobby Bausman had a team-high six ground balls as the Mighty Macs defense forced the Monarchs into 16 turnovers.
Immaculata visits Hood on Saturday at 1 p.m. to complete its opening week.
