BOX SCORE
Scranton, PA – Marywood raced out to a 5-0 lead after the first quarter of Wednesday's key Pennsylvania Athletic Conference match-up with Alvernia and hung on to score an 8-7 victory after the Crusaders battled back to tie the game early in the fourth period. Marywood improved its record to 6-2 and 3-2 in the PAC with their second consecutive conference win, while Alvernia falls to 1-8 overall and 1-3 in the PAC.
Marywood opened the scoring when Drew Lozoskie (Forest Hill, MD) found the back of the net unassisted at the 9:27 mark of the first period. Ryne Boyle (Farmingville, NY) scored just over a minute later off a feed from Nick Parks (Emmaus, PA) and Lozoskie tallied his second goal off the game of a Jamie Beagen (Patchogue, NY) assist to give the Pacers a 3-0 lead.
The hosts appeared to be ready to run away with the contest after Parks scored two extra-man opportunity goals before the end of the first quarter, but the second stanza was a different story, as the Crusaders got four goals from Tom Novak to draw within a single goal. Parks halted Alvernia's rally with his third goal of the game to give Marywood a 6-4 halftime lead.
Alvernia got the only goal of the third quarter as Novak netted his fifth goal of the game at the 8:41 mark to bring the Crusaders within a single goal, setting the stage for a thrilling final period.
Ben Stidham scored 4:17 into the fourth quarter off a Novak assist to knot the game at six.
With momentum seeming to slip away from them, the Pacers got a big play just over two and a half minutes later as goalie Jesse Habich (Broomall, PA) made a save on Novak and Jimmy Drescher (Davidsonville, MD) scooped up the loose ball. Drescher then led the Pacers down the field on a fast break before dishing the ball off to Boyle, who found Andrew Harman (Patchogue, NY) who scored to restore the Pacers' lead with 8:14 to play.
Boyle tallied a much-needed insurance goal with 3:56 remaining as William Roerden (Warwick, NY) set-up the Pacers' third man-up goal of the afternoon.
Stidham brought Alvernia back within a goal just over a minute later, but Habich and the Pacers would hold on for the 8-7 victory.
Habich made 17 saves to pick up his fifth win of the season while Matt Boulton made 10 stops in a losing effort.
Marywood held a slim 32-29 edge in shots and went three for seven with the extra-man. Alvernia was one for four in man-up opportunities, while each team won nine face-offs.
The Pacers will return to action this Saturday when they visit the University of Scranton for a non-conference game scheduled to face-off at 1:00 p.m.
