Bryant Wins 2OT Thriller Over Robert Morris
from press release
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Junior Matt Larson
(Cheshire, Conn.) scored with 48 seconds left in regulation to knot
the score at 14-14 and force overtime Saturday afternoon, but it
would be the third tally of the day from linemate Gary Crowley
(Scituate, Mass.) in double overtime that put the Bulldogs on top
for good, as the Bryant University men’s lacrosse team earned
a 15-14 double-overtime victory over Northeast Conference foe
Robert Morris on the road in Moon Township, Pa.
A team that has struggled to put up big offensive numbers all year,
the Bulldogs (7-4) were led by the long-awaited outbreak of their
first midfield line in Larson, Crowley and sophomore Max Weisenberg
(Long Beach, N.Y.), a trio that posted a 10-tally, 13-point day to
pace Bryant’s season-best 15-goal performance. Weisenberg
would score a game-high five goals on six shots in the affair.
“Our first midfield went 10-for-20 shooting,” said head
coach Mike Pressler. “We’ve been struggling all year
long in the area of shooting and for them to really break out made
it an exciting day for us.”
The contest – the first-ever between the new conference
rivals – featured 10 ties and four lead changes, but none
more important than the completion of Crowley’s first hat
trick of the season 2:29 into the second overtime, the unassisted
game winner that sent the Bulldog side into a frenzy and handed
Robert Morris (8-3) its third loss of 2010.
“We had the ball almost the entire first overtime with some
great chances,” said Pressler. Both teams were scoreless in
the initial extra frame. “And then we had a little redemption
there in the second overtime.
“We threw it away the first time down – and that
turnover was actually on Gary [Crowley],” he explained.
“And then we go and get a big stop defensively and Gary comes
down the field and lets go a 13-yarder. It was a great shot, it had
a lot of juice on it, and then there was a big celebration.
It’s just an exciting day and a great moment for Bryant
lacrosse here in the 2010 season.”
But Crowley wouldn’t have had the chance to be the hero were
it not for his linemate. Despite taking a two-goal lead into
halftime, the Colonials came out firing in the third frame,
outscoring the Bulldogs, 6-3, to take a one-goal, 11-10 edge into
the final quarter. And while Bryant would tie the game four times
in the final 15 minutes alone, the visitors would never regain the
lead in regulation. In fact, the Bulldogs found themselves down,
14-13, as the clock ticked under a minute.
Larson would remedy that situation, notching the 10th tying goal of
the outing with just 48 ticks left in the game off a feed from the
eventual game hero.
“We were kind of running around there, and Matt made a
play,” said Pressler. “He made a great, great shot on
the run and that tied the game. But we were up two at halftime and
into the third, and we let the game get away from us. Robert Morris
was on their game – they’ve been doing this
offensively, putting up these big numbers, to a lot of teams this
season.”
But goals were not the game’s only storyline.
Rookie Peter McMahon (Wilton, Conn.) put forth his best performance
to date for the Black and Gold, scoring a career-best four goals
while adding an assist. He scored back-to-back tallies in the
second frame, the first of which broke a 4-4 tie, and his final
score knotted the game at 13-13 with 5:12 left in the fourth. He
also assisted on the first goal of the game to give the Bulldogs a
1-0 advantage. All four of the freshman’s tallies came
unassisted.
“Peter McMahon, our outstanding freshman recruit, had his
best day yet,” Pressler said. “And while Max had five
goals, I’m not surprised about that. All of our attackmen had
a great game, but I think it was McMahon who really broke out and
was really the most impressive today.”
There was also the return of one of the nation’s top faceoff
specialists in senior captain Andrew Hennessey (Wading River,
N.Y.), a return that was facilitated by a more unfortunate event in
an injury to junior Evan Roberts (West Cornwall, Vt.), who had
taken over duties at the X since Hennessey was first sidelined in
early March.
“We expected Hennessey to faceoff some today, but when Evan
got hurt, he was forced to go out more often than we hoped,”
said Pressler. “But we inserted Hennessey into the game and
he went 9-for-10 from the X – and he hasn’t played in
over a month. He was quite remarkable, but that’s not
surprising. Number 40 is really good, especially when you need him
most.”
Hennessey’s 9-of-10 performance led Bryant to a 21-of-33
faceoff margin on the day after Roberts was strong early, winning
10 of his 19 faceoffs.
Neither team trailed by more than three at any point in the
contest, with Bryant’s largest lead coming after a Larson
man-up goal with 3:26 to play in the second period, 7-4. The
Colonials’ biggest lead of the day came early on, 3-1, in the
opening frame.
Crowley added a pair of helpers to his hat trick for a five-point
day, while Larson added an assist of his own with two goals scored.
Sophomore attacker Travis Harrington (Vestal, N.Y.) chipped in a
goal to knot the game at 12-12 with 8:09 to go and recorded an
assist as well, while freshman JK Poirier (Coatesville, Pa.)
registered a three-assist day, including the helper on a go-ahead
score and a pair of game-tiers. Weisenberg’s five tallies
knotted Robert Morris’s Corbyn Tao-Brambleby as a contest
best. The Colonials saw goals from nine different sources in the
double-overtime affair.
“This week, without question, was the toughest week of our
entire season,” said Pressler. “We played three tough
road games, and the final one was 10 hours from home. We thought if
our guys could reach up and get this one, it would be a great
credit to our team, and they did just that.
“To win a 15-14 shootout is certainly not our style,”
he continued. “But our goal was to get to 15 [goals], and it
took two overtimes to get it, but we got it. It was an unbelievable
game.”
The Bulldogs outshot the home side, 41-35, on the day and 5-3 in
the two overtime periods, also winning the ground ball battle,
40-28. Bryant went 12-for-16 on clearing attempts and 2-of-5 on
extra-man opportunities, and the Black and Gold limited their
turnovers to just 14 in over 66 minutes of action.
Sophomore Jameson Love (Darien, Conn.) made seven saves between the
pipes and saw 21 shots on goal on the afternoon, while a pair of
RMU goalies in Charles Ruppert and Dillon Pope combined for nine
stops, collecting three and six, respectively.
“For us to have won this game on offense was just a great
great sigh of relief. It’s something we haven’t done
all year,” said Pressler. “Now, we have to maintain
this momentum and get back to playing Bryant defense to keep
opponents’ scoring low like we are used to.”
