BALTIMORE — Loyola celebrated its Senior Day during its final regular season weekend home game of the season Saturday. It is a moment the rest of the Patriot League has looked forward to for years, as the Greyhounds moved one step closer to life without attackman Pat Spencer.
“I do think the best way to stop him is graduation,” Lehigh coach Kevin Cassese said.
It didn’t arrive nearly soon enough for the Mountain Hawks.
Spencer collected five goals and six assists as the Greyhounds scored the first nine goals in a 15-9 rout to take firm control of the Patriot League race. It was Spencer’s second consecutive 10-point performance, the first Division I player to achieve the feat since Albany’s Lyle Thompson in 2015.
Aidan Olmstead and Chase Scanlan both added three goals for Loyola (8-2, 5-0 Patriot), which can clinch the top seed in the conference tournament by claiming any two of its final three league games.
The Greyhounds have won four in a row — by an average of 9.5 goals — and Cassese suggested his team was on the wrong end of perhaps Loyola’s best outing yet.
“I certainly hope not,” Loyola coach Charley Toomey said. “I hope there’s more out there. But I will say this: I think that we’re getting healthy at the right time, both offensively and defensively. Our practices have been better, they’ve been more competitive as we’re guys aren’t sitting out as much. I think it’s starting to show.”
Tristan Rai had two goals and an assist for the Lehigh (7-4, 5-1), which has lost all 15 of its all-time meetings with the Greyhounds and is 0-8 against Loyola since it joined the Patriot League in 2014.
The latest setback was jarring not so much in that it happened — the Mountain Hawks have performed admirably despite a series of injuries this season — but how quickly it was effectively done. The Patriot League standings entering the morning start hinted at some parity between Lehigh and Loyola, the only two teams who came into the day without a conference loss.
By noon, Loyola had rendered that perception an illusion.
Spencer scored less than two minutes in, and Scanlan’s unassisted transition goal to make it 3-0 prompted Lehigh coach Kevin Cassese to call timeout.
“Just look at the way it starts,” Cassese said. “I think we should probably slide to the player of the year on the first play he touches it. That was disappointing to see, and it just kind of continued to unravel from there.”
The stoppage didn’t ignite the Mountain Hawks offense, and on Loyola’s next possession the Greyhounds managed to call timeout while on flirting with a turnover. Cassese was displeased at the development, was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and Loyola quickly added an extra-man goal after the timeout.
Then came the injury added to insult. Freshman defenseman Michael Hagenberger, starting his fourth consecutive game in place of Eddie Bouhall, fell to the turf with a right leg injury as Spencer zipped by for a goal with 4:24 left in the first quarter.
By the time Rai got Lehigh on the board more than 21 minutes in, Loyola had built a 9-0 lead. The Mountain Hawks never cut the deficit to less than six goals the rest of the way.
“We came out with a bunch of energy,” Spencer said. “We started off pretty hot and we had a pretty good rhythm and I think we were moving the ball well. Ball was in and out sticks, and I was able to make a couple plays just based off the way they were playing defense. They weren’t sliding to me and I was able to get a step on the guy. Nothing changed. We just played good offense.”
It would be easy enough to turn Loyola’s Senior Day into a list of superlatives for Spencer. He moved into third on the NCAA’s career assists list (209) and tied former Air Force star Joe Vasta for sixth in Division I history for career points (343).
But Jacob Stover made 15 saves, his 11th consecutive game with at least 10. Bailey Savio won 16 of 27 draws, with much of the work coming against Lehigh faceoff ace Conor Gaffney. Loyola defenseman Cam Wyers did standout work on senior attackman Lucas Spence, keeping Lehigh’s point leader to two assists.
All of which is to say Spencer has played a large role in Loyola’s 31-4 record against Patriot League opponents over the last four years. But the Greyhounds are hardly a one-man band.
Which helps explain why Lehigh just couldn’t get traction at either end of the field until it was far too late.
“I did say that after 1 o’clock on Saturday, we would be a better team,” Cassese said. “I think every single one of our weaknesses was exposed today, so now we’re going to go work and try to figure out how to make that better and make sure they don’t get exposed again.”
Lehigh is far from finished. It has the benefit of a midweek game to quickly move past this drubbing rather than stew about it for seven days. It can still claim a bye into the Patriot League semifinals with defeats of Bucknell and Holy Cross to close out conference play.
But chances are, any shot the Mountain Hawks have at a conference title will go through Loyola early next month. And Spencer, his Senior Day out of the way but his eligibility good to go through Memorial Day, will still be with the Greyhounds. Lehigh — and the rest of the Patriot League — can’t count on Spencer’s graduation to alter the landscape just yet.