LAURINBURG, N.C. (April 1, 2011) - The Rollins
men's lacrosse team is searching for answers as a questionable
series of events in overtime gave St. Andrews Presbyterian College
an advantage, allowing the Knights to pull out a 7-6 win in
extended play on Friday afternoon. The Tars drop to 2-9 on the
season, while the Knights advance to 6-8.
Rollins and St. Andrews were knotted at 6-6 at the end of the
fourth quarter thanks to a late equalizer from Austin
Ricci to send the game into overtime. The Tars ended
regulation in a man-up situation as the result of a late SAPC
penalty, but the Knights' goalie held possession of the ball at the
end of regulation, earning them control of the ball at the start of
overtime.
Already in a man-down situation, the Knights only had eight
players on the field at the start of extended play. Squeaking
their ninth player onto the field after the starting whistle,
SAPC's goalie Kyle Davitt found the open man at the substitution
box, which resulted in a fast break clear. The late substitution
caught the Tars off guard and resulted in the game-winning goal
from SAPC's Steven Tramonte just 10 seconds into overtime.
Ricci led the Tars on the afternoon with his third hat trick of
the season. Charlie
Shelly, Peter
Harvey, and Jack
Dever netted a goal apiece. Assisting on the afternoon were Eric
Schmit with two, and James
Libutti and Justin
Wright with one each as the Tars posted a total of 10 points on
the day.
Rollins goalie Doug
O'Brien had a career day between the pipes as he set aside 15
shots and collected five ground balls. O'Brien faced a total of 37
shots and 23 shots on frame, yielding only seven.
His counterpart, Davitt, made nine saves while allowing six
goals and picking up five ground balls.
The Knights were led by Chris Michela who posted a team best
three points with two goals and an assist. Cameron Walsh was close
behind with two goals of his own, while Alex Tindall posted two
points as he earned two assists.
SAPC got on the scoreboard first with a goal from Ryan Konig,
but the Tars retaliated with Libutti connecting a pass to Shelly to
set the score at 1-1. Harvey scored the final goal of the first
period on an unassisted shot, giving the Tars a 2-1 advantage
entering into the second quarter.
St. Andrews opened the second period in the same fashion as the
first, with Michela netting a goal off of a Tindall assist to tie
the score at 2-2, but Dever struck back and placed a shot between
the pipes off of an assist from Wright to put the Tars back into a
one goal lead with the score set at 3-2. Michela found the back of
the net to close out the half, knotting the scoreboard at 3-3 at
the break.
Rollins held their opponent silent throughout the third quarter
and, thanks to a lone goal from Ricci, pulled ahead to a 4-3 lead
with one quarter to go.
The Knights scored the first goal of the final regulation period
to even the tally at 4-4, but Schmit found Ricci for another goal
to give Rollins a one point advantage yet again. St. Andrews
rattled off two straight to earn their second lead of the game, but
Ricci's final goal of the day set the score at 6-6, and set in
motion the flurry of overtime events that left the Tars
stunned.
Rollins trailed in shots 37-28, but led the ground ball war
42-40. Both teams won 8-of-16 faceoffs, with Schmit winning a game
high 83% as he found success of 5-of-6 attempts. The Tars were
25-of-30 on clear attempts, and caused a total of 11 turnovers, led
by Nick
Scannapieco and Andrew
Vossler with three each.
The Tars return to action in their final game of the regular
season on Sunday, April 3, when they take on Pfeiffer University.
Game time against the Falcons is slated for noon. Fans will be
able to catch all of the action live on the Tars Sports Network at
RollinsSports.com.
