Owings Mills, MD – The old adage "defense wins championships" proved to be true in Friday afternoon's Capital Athletic Conference men's lacrosse semifinal action between No. 14 Villa Julie College and St. Mary's (Md.) College as a pair of defenseman worked together to net the Seahawks' game-winning goal with 1:18 left in the game.

Senior defenseman Ryan DiPasquale (Joppa, MD/Boys' Latin) ran the ball up from the defensive third along the sidelines and fed a pass to sophomore long-pole Reid Featherstone (Norwalk, CT/Brien McMahon) as Featherstone streaked up the middle. Featherstone took three steps into the box and fired in a shot into the lower left corner, netting his first career goal and putting St. Mary's up by one with a little over a minute left.

The fifth-seeded Seahawks (11-5) now advance to Sunday's CAC Championship at top-seeded Salisbury University, a 19-2 winner over No. 5-seed Goucher College in today's other semifinal game. The game will be at 1:00.

After freshman middie Ryan Alexander (Laurel, MD/Palotti) put the Seahawks up on the scoreboard first at 13:51, Villa Julie (10-4) fired in three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead at the end of first period play. St. Mary's outscored the Mustangs, 2-1, in the second frame behind goals from junior attackmen Pat Oliphant (Chatham, NJ/Chatham) and Stu Wright (Bethesda, MD/Good Counsel) to pull within 4-3 at halftime.

The Seahawks posted another 2-1 scoring advantage in the third quarter as Alexander scored twice but the game was tied five all after 45 minutes of play.

Oliphant completed a dish from Alexander at 11:23 as SMCM went up 6-5 but back-to-back goals by Villa Julie gave the Mustangs a 7-6 edge with 7:26 left. Junior attackman Ryan Niland (Arnold, MD/Mercersburg [PA] Academy) knotted the game at 7-7 at 6:02 as Niland took a pass from Wright.

Alexander had another strong performance for St. Mary's with three goals and an assist, while Wright finished with a goal and three assists. Oliphant had two on the day.

Sophomore face-off specialist Marc DiPasquale (Joppa, MD/Boys' Latin) won 10-of-18 face-offs and had four loose ball pick-ups.

Senior Rich Barr (Salisbury, MD/Worcester Prep) registered 14 stops, scooped up six ground balls, and caused two turnovers, while senior defenseman Michael Alcamo (Severna Park, MD/Severn) notched five ground balls and four caused turnovers.

Score by Period       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
St. Mary's (Md.)....  1  2  2  3 -  8
Villa Julie.........  3  1  1  2 -  7
 
Attendance: 200
 
St. Mary's (Md.) SCORING:
GOALS: Ryan Alexander 3; Pat Oliphant 2; Stu Wright 1;
       Ryan Niland 1; Reid Featherstone 1.
ASSISTS: Stu Wright 3; Ryan Alexander 1; Ryan DiPasquale 1;
         Josh Hostetler 1; John Oliver 1; Matt Stone 1.
 
Villa Julie SCORING:
GOALS: Kevin Donnelly 2; Greg Furshman 1; Andrew White 1;
       Dustin Harlowe 1; Brooks Beaty 1; Matthew Healy 1.
ASSISTS: Jimmy Dailey 1; Greg Furshman 1; Nicholas Mueller 1.
 
SHOTS BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
St. Mary's (Md.)....  7  5  6  7 - 25
Villa Julie......... 10 14  5  6 - 35
 
GROUND BALLS BY PRD   1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
St. Mary's (Md.)....  6  9  8  9 - 32
Villa Julie......... 11  4 11 10 - 36
 
FACE-OFFS BY PRD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
St. Mary's (Md.)....  2-5   4-4   2-4   3-6  - 11-19
Villa Julie.........  3-5   0-4   2-4   3-6  -  8-19
 
CLEARS BY PERIOD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
St. Mary's (Md.)....  8-9   5-6   8-9   8-9  - 29-33
Villa Julie.........  8-8   9-9   6-7   6-6  - 29-30
 
EXTRA-MAN OPPS         1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
St. Mary's (Md.)....  0-0   0-1   1-1   0-1  -  1-3
Villa Julie.........  0-2   0-0   0-1   0-1  -  0-4
 
SAVES BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
St. Mary's (Md.)....  5  4  3  4 - 16
Villa Julie.........  4  3  1  2 - 10
 
TURNOVERS BY PRD      1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
St. Mary's (Md.)....  6 10  9  6 - 31
Villa Julie.........  5  7  9  6 - 27
 
PENALTIES - St. Mary's (Md.) 4/3:30; Villa Julie 3/3:00.

2007-04-21