Brookhaven , NY (May 3, 2008) - Dowling's Nick Cotter scored with just 17 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to power the No. 8 Golden Lions to a 15-14 upset win over No. 2 NYIT tonight in both teams final game of the 2008 regular season. Dowling scored the game's final two goals to thwart a Bears comeback. NYIT, which trailed 13-9 with just over six minutes to play in the fourth quarter, scored five consecutive times in a three minute span to take a 14-13 lead.

The Bears suffer their first loss of the season and drop to 11-1 overall, 5-1 in the ECC. Dowling improves to 12-3 and 4-2 in the league. The Bears, who captured their first ECC Championship since 2005 with their win over Mercyhurst last Saturday, will now wait and see if they receive a bid to play in the NCAA Division II tournament. The selections will be announced on Sunday, May 4 at 5:00 p.m.

The Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter behind consecutive scores from graduate student Paul Flowers (London, England) and led 4-2 at the end of the first quarter. Dowling took control of the game, outscoring NYIT 7-2 in the second quarter, with Cotter and Kevin Rimmer each scoring twice. Dowling headed into the half with a 9-6 lead.

Each team scored twice in the third quarter, with sophomore Austin Carino (Huntington, N.Y.) scoring both of the Bears goals. After Dowling's Ryan Campbell opened the fourth quarter with a score to give the Golden Lions a 12-8 lead, Carino netted his fifth of the game to make it a 12-9 score with 8:30 remaining. Kyle O'Brien responded for Dowling to give the Golden Lions a 13-9 lead with just 6:29 to play. That is when the Bears offense went into high gear, scoring five consecutive goals over the next three minutes to take their first lead of the game, 14-13.

Flowers started the rally with his third of the game just 20 seconds after O'Briens's goal and freshman Ryan Amengual (West Babylon, N.Y.) and junior Michael Procida (Wantagh, N.Y.) scored just :10 seconds apart at 5:36 and 5:26 to bring the Bears to within 13-12. Junior Kevin Hennessy (West Babylon, N.Y.) tied the game at 13-13 with 3:20 to go and just :10 seconds later, Carino scored his sixth of the game off of an assist from junior Keith Henderson (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) to give the Bears the 14-13 lead.

Dowling's John McClure tied the game just 21 seconds after Carino's goal setting up Cotter's game-winner. Carino finished with a game-high six goals in the loss, Flowers added three scores and junior Matt Messina (Sayville, N.Y.) chipped in with a goal and three assists. Henderson, the Bears leading scorer, was held without a goal for the first time this season. Cotter netted five goals for Dowling, while O'Brien, Rimmer and Campbell each added three scores.

Dowling outshot NYIT 46-36 and won the battle of the groundballs 51-43. Junior Chris Powers (Salt Lake City, Utah) made 13 saves in net for the Bears.

Score by Period       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
NYIT................  4  2  2  6 - 14
Dowling.............  2  7  2  4 - 15
 
Attendance: 2,278
 
NYIT SCORING:
GOALS: Carino, Austin 6; Flowers, Paul 3; Hennessy, Kevin 2; Messina, Matt 1;
       Amengual, Ryan 1; Procida, Michael 1.
ASSISTS: Messina, Matt 3; Henderson, Keith 2; Sullivan, Matt 2; Amengual,Ryan 1;
         Garcia, Jared 1; Hennessy, Kevin 1.
 
Dowling SCORING:
GOALS: Cotter,Nick 5; O'Brien, Kyle 3; Campbell, Ryan 3; Rimmer, Kevin 3;
       McClure, John 1.
ASSISTS: Campbell, Ryan 2; McClure, John 2; O'Brien, Kyle 2; Hoctor, Eddie 1;
         Lorenzo, Keith 1; Murray, Hugh 1; Nunez, PJ 1.
 
SHOTS BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
NYIT................ 11 12  5  8 - 36
Dowling............. 10 14 12 10 - 46
 
GROUND BALLS BY PRD   1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
NYIT................ 18 11  4 10 - 43
Dowling............. 11 13 16 11 - 51
 
FACE-OFFS BY PRD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
NYIT................  4-7   5-10  1-5   7-11 - 17-33
Dowling.............  3-7   5-10  4-5   4-11 - 16-33
 
CLEARS BY PERIOD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
NYIT................  5-6   3-4   4-8   5-9  - 17-27
Dowling.............  6-8   5-7   4-4   4-4  - 19-23
 
EXTRA-MAN OPPS         1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
NYIT................  0-0   1-1   2-4   0-0  -  3-5
Dowling.............  0-0   2-2   1-3   1-2  -  4-7
 
SAVES BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
NYIT................  5  3  2  3 - 13
Dowling.............  6  3  1  2 - 12
 
TURNOVERS BY PRD      1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
NYIT................  8  7  6  6 - 27
Dowling.............  7  5  7  6 - 25
 
PENALTIES - NYIT 7/5:30; Dowling 5/3:30.
 
SCORING SUMMARY:
    Prd  Time Team  Type Goal Scorer             Assists                  H-V
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1. 1st 12:59 NYIT  EVEN Flowers, Paul (9)...... Sullivan, Matt (20)....  0-1
 2.     10:26 NYIT  EVEN Flowers, Paul (10)..... Amengual, Ryan (10)....  0-2
 3.      6:35 DCML  EVEN Rimmer, Kevin (17)..... Unassisted.............  1-2
 4.      3:37 NYIT  EVEN Carino, Austin (24).... Henderson, Keith (7)...  1-3
 5.      2:51 DCML  EVEN Cotter,Nick (30)....... Unassisted.............  2-3
 6.      1:37 NYIT  EVEN Hennessy, Kevin (15)... Unassisted.............  2-4
 7. 2nd 14:38 DCML  EVEN Cotter,Nick (31)....... Unassisted.............  3-4
 8.     12:28 DCML  EVEN Campbell, Ryan (17).... Murray, Hugh (1).......  4-4
 9.      7:20 DCML  UP   O'Brien, Kyle (35)..... Unassisted.............  5-4
10.      4:39 NYIT  UP   Messina, Matt (17)..... Sullivan, Matt (21)....  5-5
11.      4:07 DCML  EVEN Rimmer, Kevin (18)..... Campbell, Ryan (18)....  6-5
12.      3:30 DCML  UP   Cotter,Nick (32)....... McClure, John (10).....  7-5
13.      2:22 DCML  EVEN O'Brien, Kyle (36)..... Lorenzo, Keith (3).....  8-5
14.      1:40 NYIT  EVEN Carino, Austin (25).... Messina, Matt (23).....  8-6
15.      0:59 DCML  EVEN Rimmer, Kevin (19)..... Campbell, Ryan (19)....  9-6
16. 3rd 13:40 NYIT  UP   Carino, Austin (26).... Hennessy, Kevin (20)...  9-7
17.     13:15 DCML  EVEN Campbell, Ryan (18).... O'Brien, Kyle (15)..... 10-7
18.      4:12 NYIT  UP   Carino, Austin (27).... Messina, Matt (24)..... 10-8
19.      3:26 DCML  UP   Cotter,Nick (33)....... McClure, John (11)..... 11-8
20. 4th 11:57 DCML  UP   Campbell, Ryan (19).... Unassisted............. 12-8
21.      8:30 NYIT  EVEN Carino, Austin (28).... Messina, Matt (25)..... 12-9
22.      6:29 DCML  EVEN O'Brien, Kyle (37)..... Nunez, PJ (3).......... 13-9
23.      6:09 NYIT  EVEN Flowers, Paul (11)..... Unassisted............. 13-10
24.      5:36 NYIT  EVEN Amengual, Ryan (8)..... Unassisted............. 13-11
25.      5:26 NYIT  EVEN Procida, Michael (11).. Garcia, Jared (2)...... 13-12
26.      3:20 NYIT  EVEN Hennessy, Kevin (16)... Unassisted............. 13-13
27.      3:10 NYIT  EVEN Carino, Austin (29).... Henderson, Keith (8)... 13-14
28.      2:49 DCML  EVEN McClure, John (24)..... O'Brien, Kyle (16)..... 14-14
29.      0:17 DCML  EVEN Cotter,Nick (34)....... Hoctor, Eddie (15)..... 15-14

2008-05-04