Some championships are won when an individual player puts his team on his back and carries them to the title; others are won when a team as a whole steps up to play better than the sum of its parts. Today, the Drew Rangers were the later as they won a tense, hard fought affair with the Goucher Gophers to take the inaugural Landmark Conference Mens Lacrosse championships, 8-5, at Ranger Stadium.

Drew trailed for just seven minutes in the game, but led by more than two goals for less than two minutes in the game. The win gives Drews Head Coach Tom Leanos a championship in his 20th season in charge of the Rangers. Among the numerous standouts for the Rangers were Jon Bucknam, who had three goals and an assist, Jon Dowiak, who won 11 of 15 face offs, and the goaltending duo of Brad Mendelson and Michael Celentano. Goucher played a valiant game with Austin Main outstanding in goal and Alex Teit scoring twice.

The game began appropriately with the Rangers taking the opening possession thanks to a Dowiak face off win. The Rangers then kept possession in the Gopher area for nearly four minutes of play. With the Landmarks leading offense against Gouchers conference leading defense, Drew threw a couple of jabs from Sean McNulty and Steve Carnes long range shots, but couldnt break down the impressive Gopher defense. After Main stopped Rob Budziszewskis close ranger effort, the Gophers landed a counter punch with Alex Tiet rolling back to the middle to lose his marker and fire home from eight meters out at 10:06.

Though Dowiak won the ensuing face-off, Drew was unable to get a good shot off against the tight Goucher D and when they did Main came up with the save as he did against Mike Sayers around the nine minute mark. A penalty with 4:16 left in the period gave the Rangers a man-up and they used it well. Budziszewski held the ball behind the goal and found a cutting Greg Reading. The sophomore held the close range pass and fired inside the far post from the crease to tie it at 1-1.

With the Gopher defense playing so well, the Rangers needed some fortune to get the second goal. Goucher had possession, but a missed pass set up a Ranger breakaway with Bucknam and Mike Sayers ahead of the field. Bucknam got Sayers alone on the keeper and after moving Main with a fake, the sophomore found the netting with just 30 seconds left in the period.

The second period was much of the same as the two teams were finding the measure of each other throughout. Drew had most of the possession, but the Gopher defense remained resilient. Steve Carnes got open in a dangerous position, but Main saved low.

With it clear that the Rangers would not win 11-10 in a relative shootout as they had earlier in the season, the Rangers defense stepped up to match the Gophers stop for stop. Greg Hamilton stripped Sam Fitzpatrick on the wing to end one Goucher possession that turned into another time killing Drew attack. Brian Hoge got alone on goal a minute later, but Brad Mendelson denied him high.

With Goucher on a power play, Mendelson made another save that Gary DiClementi picked up to kill the penalty. Mike DeGiovanni came up with a nice stick check to end a threat as Jordon Block grabbed the ground ball a bit later and Mendelson came up with another one-on-one save against Hoge with five minutes left. Goucher did well to kill off a two man power play for Drew and the clock ran out on the tense first half 2-1 to the Rangers.

As always, the Rangers switched keepers to open the second half with Mike Celentano in goal. Celentano made a terrific save early in the period, but got beat on a screened long range effort from David Duff as Goucher tied the game 2-2 with 12:01 left in the third. The Gophers almost took the lead, but Celentano stonewalled Hoge from close range to give Drew a chance to go back ahead. That possession turned into a good clear from Bloch and then Mike Sayers behind the net with the ball.

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2008-05-03