TOWSON, Md. – Goucher led 3-2 after one period and 5-4 at the end of the first half. And thanks to a goal by Alex Boucher (North Wales, Pa./Germantown Academy) with :03 remaining in the third quarter, the Gophers also began the final 15:00 with a one-goal advantage over Scranton today in the semifinals of the 2009 Landmark Conference championship tournament.

That slim lead, however, quickly evaporated when Robert Pantages tallied his only goal of the contest just :44 into the fourth quarter. Just over 3:00 later, the Royals went ahead for the first time since the opening period on a goal by Thomas Kornobis. Then with 7:54 left to play, an extra-man goal by Robby Napp made the score 10-8 in Scranton's favor.

Brian Hoge (Crofton, Md./Arundel) sliced Goucher's deficit in half with his unassisted goal with 4:57 remaining, but there would be no more scoring after that as the Royals (9-7) were able to pull off the 10-9 upset of the tournament's No. 1 seed.

In order to protect his team's one-goal lead, goalkeeper Jeremy Dowiak had to make three saves in the final 3:40. He finished with a total of 16 saves.

An unassisted goal by Sam Fitzpatrick (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) snapped a 2-2 tie with 1:15 remaining in the first quarter and then the senior attackman stuck a pair of extra-man goals just :50 apart early in the second period to put the Gophers ahead 5-2.

Fitzpatrick again provided Goucher with a one-goal lead when he scored unassisted 2:45 into the third quarter. It was his 35th goal of the season and 93rd of his career.

Kyle Boncaro (Geneva, N.Y./Geneva) was awarded assists on two of Goucher's goals to finish the season with 35 assists, two shy of the single-season school record set by Tim Asher in 1997.

* * * *

TOWSON, Md. - In three short seasons, University of Scranton head men's lacrosse coach Kevin Dugan has the Royals within one game of a conference championship.

And that's saying something for a program that went 8-37 in three years prior to his arrival in the summer of 2006. What makes today's 10-9 semifinal victory over top-seeded Goucher College even more impressive is that Scranton is coming off a 10-0 loss in the regular-season finale against Drew University last Saturday, the first time since 2003 that the Royals failed to score a goal.

"I've never been more proud of a team that I am today," says Dugan. "To come back and play the way we did after getting beat 10-0 last Saturday is truly remarkable. We didn't hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves. Our players showed a lot of heart and determination today, and I can't say enough about their effort."

The game was a tightly-fought contest reminiscent of Scranton's 10-9 double overtime victory in the regular-season game played at Fitzpatrick Field on April 4. It was tied six times before senior midfielder Thomas Kornobis (Merrick, N.Y./W.C. Mepham) put the Royals ahead for good with an unassisted goal with 11:11 left in the fourth period and freshman Robby Napp (Spring Lake, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal with 7:54 left to cap off a team-high four-goal performance.

Napp's game-winner was set up on an alert play by sophomore attacker Thomas Alati (Glen Ridge, N.J./Montclair Kimberly), who started a fast-break opportunity with a picture-perfect pass to Napp. Napp then traded passes with senior attacker Nick Youngstrom (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) before converting for his team-leading 33rd goal of the season.

1 2    Next  »

2009-04-29