Top Seeds Advance to NE10 Men's Lacrosse Championship Game.
#2 Le Moyne 12, #3 Merrimack 11 - Box Score
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Trailing by a goal with less than 30 seconds to play, No. 3 Le Moyne rallied past the No. 5 Merrimack men's lacrosse team with two goals in a 23-second span – including the go-ahead strike with only three seconds left by Evan Kelly – to stun the Warriors in the semifinal round of the 2019 Northeast 10 Conference Championship.
Moving to 13-3 on the season, Merrimack will await its NCAA Tournament fate when the full 12-team bracket is revealed on Sunday. The defending national champions have qualified for four straight tournaments, which gets underway next Wednesday with preliminary round action.
The Basics
Score: Le Moyne 12, Merrimack 11
Records: #5 Merrimack (13-3, 10-1 NE10) | #3 Le Moyne (14-2, 10-1 NE10)
Location: Ted Grant Field | Syracuse, N.Y.
Rapid Recap
- Merrimack would get the game's opening possession and had a few looks, but Le Moyne netminder Riley Smith set the tone early with two of what would be 18 saves in total. The Dolphins then came down took their first lead of the afternoon before turnovers by both sides mucked up the next five minutes as neither side was able to take advantage of their scoring opportunities.
- Merrimack came up empty on its first extra-man opportunity of the day, and the Dolphins would make that missed chance hurt, scoring on their next possession to double their lead before netting one last marker before the buzzer sounded to carry a 3-0 lead into the first break.
- The Warriors mounted their first charge of the afternoon with a dominant 10-minute stretch that saw them turn a three-goal deficit into a three-goal lead after six uninterrupted goals. Junior Charlie Bertrand and sophomore Christian Thomas had two apiece, with senior Michael O'Connell and freshman Christian Glover netting the last two to push the Warriors ahead.
- Le Moyne would make it interesting after finding the back of the net twice in the final three minutes of the half to pull within one at the midway point.
- Le Moyne scored early in the third to tie things up, sparking a four-goal frame for the hosts, who would outscore Merrimack by a 4-2 margin in that sequence. After about an eight-minute draught, Christian Thomas' third of the day gave the Warriors the lead right back, but two quick responses (including one after an EMO expired) by the home side pushed them back ahead, 8-7, with 2:01 left.
- Rookie Max Morrill would get on the board after picking up a rebound and burying it with under a minute left in the third, but Le Moyne would get one more with 38 ticks left to take that 9-8 edge into the final quarter, as well as a man-up chance.
- Merrimack was first tasked with killing off a penalty and did so before leveling the ledger at 9-all with the first of the day by sophomore Sean Black early in the fourth. Then it was junior Dom Thomas taking a pass from brother Christian Thomas and finding the twine for another Merrimack lead at 10:23, and five minutes later, Black went in alone and scored to give the Warriors their first multi-goal lead since the second quarter.
- Le Moyne got to within a goal at 4:22, but sophomore Davis Cronin came up with a crucial face-off win for the visitors, who had opportunities to add to their lead but turned it over on a crease violation. That kept the door open for the Dolphins, who tied it with 26 seconds left.
- Merrimack would win the final face-off initially, but another turnover gave possession back to the hosts; after a timeout, the Dolphins scored with less than three seconds left to complete the stunning rally and get the win.
#1 Adelphi 15, #4 Pace 12 - Box Score
Garden City, N.Y. - For the fourth time in the past six years, the Adelphi men's lacrosse team will play for a Northeast 10 Championship. The top-seeded Panthers down fourth-seeded Pace, 15-12, in Wednesday's semifinal on Motamed Field to return to the NE10 title game after a year's absence.
Adelphi is 3-2 in NE10 championship games all-time, winning its last title in 2015 as the second of back-to-back titles, and last finishing runner-up to Le Moyne College on home turf in 2017.
The Panthers will have a another crack at the Dolphins in an NE10 final on Motamed Field on Sunday at 1 p.m., after second-seeded Le Moyne edged third-seeded Merrimack in the waning second of the other semifinal, 12-11, earlier on Wednesday.
A 6-1 scoring edge in the third quarter turned a one-goal game at halftime into a six-goal lead for Adelphi, and the Panthers kept the Setters at arms' length from there over the final 15 minutes.
Ian Kirby and Michael Osmundsen both tallied hat tricks for the Panthers (16-1) in the victory, with Osmundsen also tallying an assist for a team-high four points. Michael Paccione also tallied a goal and two assists for three points in the win, while 10 Adelphi players recorded at least one point in total.
Brendan McDougal made 12 saves in the Panthers' cage, while Mark Andrejack won 20 of the 28 face-offs he took at the X and picked up a game-high 13 ground balls.
Despite letting up the first goal of the game to Kirby, Pace scored four of the next five to take a 4-2 lead over the Panthers in the opening quarter. However, the Setters would not score again from the 3:35 mark in the period, over which scores by Gordon Purdie, Jr. and Nicolas Racalbuto tied things up at 4-4 after the first 15.
Pace twice took a one-goal lead in the second quarter, but Adelphi had the answer each time, and later scored three of the last four goals over the last 8:31 to lead 8-7 at the break, with Sean McGovern's tally with 3:17 to play the difference.
The Brown and Gold nearly kept Pace off the board in the third period, scoring the first six goals before the Setters' Daniel Keenan put one in with just nine seconds on the clock. Five different Panthers were responsible for the six goals, with Osmundsen starting and ending the scoring stretch, to build a game-high 14-8 lead.
The Setters would not go quietly, however, scoring four of the last five goals of the game overall, and the last three, to creep closer - but they could not ultimately overcome the deficit.
The Dolphins got the better of the Panthers in the teams' regular-season meeting on April 13. In a game in which in the Panthers trailed 8-2, they then ripped off six unanswered to level proceedings at 8-8 in the fourth quarterfinal before Le Moyne scored the last two to hand Adelphi its only loss of the season to date.
Saturday, April 27th
First Round
Game 1: #3 Merrimack 14, #6 Saint Anselm 8
Game 2: #4 Pace 16, #5 Bentley 10
Wednesday, May 1st
Semifinals
Game 3: #1 Adelphi 15, #4 Pace 12
Game 4: #2 Le Moyne 12, #3 Merrimack 11
Saturday, May 4th
Championship at Highest Remaining Seed
Game 5: #2 Le Moyne vs. #1 Adelphi – 1:00 p.m. at Adelphi
-Information for releases provided by Merrimack and Adelphi athletic communications staffs-
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