Mercer Men’s Lacrosse to Host Richmond Saturday in Atlantic Sun Opener

MACON, Ga. (MERCER RELEASE) – The Mercer men’s lacrosse team officially opens a new era on Saturday, as the Bears play host to Richmond in the program’s first Atlantic Sun Conference game. Game time at Mercer University Stadium is scheduled for noon.

Mercer (1-2) aims to rebound from a difficult pair of road games that saw the Bears drop a 20-7 decision to Michigan and fall 11-10 at Detroit Mercy. The team aims to protect home field advantage, where the team is 1-0 on the year after downing Boston University 17-6 in the 2014 season opener on Feb. 8.

SCOUTING RICHMOND

Richmond is a first year program making its first ever road trip on Saturday after falling to Hartford 19-11 in their last outing on Feb. 16. The Spiders are 0-2 on the year after being edged by No. 7 Virginia 13-12 in the team’s first official game on Feb. 8.

The Spiders are coached by Dan Chemotti, who was hired in October of 2012 to build the program from the ground up. Prior to signing on with Richmond, Chemotti was an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at Loyola of Maryland, where he helped lead the Greyhounds to the 2012 National Championship.

Nearly two-thirds of the Richmond roster is made up of freshmen and the team is second to only Boston University with 61.6% of the roster comprised by first-year students. 19 of the team’s 23 goals this season have been scored by freshmen.

Freshman attackman Mitch Goldberg ranks 14th nationally with an average of 5.0 points per game while also ranking 17th in the country with an average 3.5 goals per game. Goldberg found the net three times in the team’s opener against Virginia and later added four goals in the loss to Hartford.

The Spiders have played three different goalkeepers in their first two games, with Frank Piechota making six saves and allowing 11 goals in the loss to Hartford and Conor Shannon and Benny Pugh splitting duties while combining for 14 saves against Virginia.

FAST FACTS

Senior attackman Zack ward and sophomore attackman Chris Baxa both rank highly among Division I players offensively. Ward’s 4.0 points per game average ranks third nationally while Baxa checks in on the list at No. 8 (3.7 ppg). Ward’s 10 goals this season places him in a three-way tie for the second most goals scored among Division I players while Baxa’s seven goals is tied for 11th most.

Junior midfielder Timmy Geran collected three assists in each of Mercer’s first two games and is tied for seventh most among Division I assist leaders in 2014. While Geran did not notch an assist last time out, the Alpharetta native did score one goal on six total shots at Detroit Mercy.

As a team, Mercer is outscoring oppponents 10-7 in the fourth quarter this season. The Bears are also leading opponents in shots (29-24) and shots on goal (20-11) in fourth quarter play this year.

Saturday’s game is not only the first official league contest for both teams, but also the first official Atlantic Sun Conference game overall. All four other A-Sun teams are scheduled to play non-conference opponents on Saturday.