Morrell scores four, Bulldogs fall to No. 7 Yale, 16-9, Saturday on road

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Junior attack Shane Morrell (Glen Mills, Pa.) found the back of the net a game-high four times to lead the Bryant University men's lacrosse team, but four players recorded hat tricks for No. 7 Yale Saturday afternoon to lead the Elis to a 16-9 win over the Bulldogs in New Haven, Conn.

The Bulldogs (1-3) saw just a single goal from its midfield ranks – a Collins Gantz (Denver, Colo.) score in the third quarter – while sophomore attack Tucker James (Essex Fells, N.J.) recorded his second-straight hat trick. Rookie linemate Cam Ziegler (Carlsbad, Calif.) added three points off a goal and two assists.

All three Yale (3-0) starting attackmen – Ben Reeves, Conrad Oberbeck and Jeff Cimbalista – netted a trio of scores in the victory, as did Eric Scott.

Morrell opened Bryant's scoring 90 seconds into the first quarter to answer a Reilly Naton goal that came 18 ticks into the contest. But Reeves and Oberbeck would each rattle off back-to-back tallies – the final coming with 49 seconds in the stanza – to take a 5-1 Yale advantage into the second quarter.

Morrell netting his second unassisted goal on the afternoon less than five minutes into the second, and while the junior attack would score twice more in the period, each one was answered by a Yale tally to maintain the four-goal margin at the halftime break, 8-4. Morrell received feeds from Ziegler and fellow frosh Tom Kennedy (Farmingdale, N.Y.) on his second-quarter scores.

Scott netted a man-up goal in the opening minute of the third, followed by a Colin Flaherty unassisted goal, but Bryant would answer with a pair of its own, with unaided scores coming off the sticks of Gantz and James bring the clock to 7:16 to go in the stanza with a 10-6 margin favoring the home side.

Reeves and Oberbeck would bookend the second James score of the third with 3:09 remaining, and the hosts opened up the final period with a man-down tally from Cimbalista to go up, 13-7. Scott found space between the pipes twice more to run the clock into the final 10 minutes, and while James and Ziegler would each find the back of the net once more, it wouldn't be enough in the 16-9 loss.

Yale outshot Bryant, 28-24, on the afternoon and went a perfect 10-for-10 on the clear. Behind 10 from senior faceoff specialist Kevin Massa (Huntington, N.Y.), the Bulldogs edged the Elis in ground balls, 28-27, while Massa went 18-for-28 from the X. Eric Natale made two stops to secure the victory in goal, while junior Gunnar Waldt (Freeland, Md.) made just one in 50 minutes of action before giving way to rookie James Werner (New Rochelle, N.Y.) (1 save).

The Bulldogs have a week off before heading on a Spring Break trip that will take them to Philadelphia for a March 7 matchup against Drexel (1 p.m.) and to Chapel Hill, N.C., where Bryant will faceoff against top-10 foe North Carolina (4 p.m.).