FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2014
Courtesy of Adelphi Athletics Communications
GARDEN CITY,
N.Y. - Aidan
Bennardo made a save with 74 seconds left to
keep the #1 Adelphi University men's lacrosse team knotted at seven
with North Region #4 Dowling College, setting
up Salvatore
Tuttle's second
straight last second heriocs, as Tuttle scored with 6.3 seconds
lift the Panthers to a 8-7 victory on Saturday, May 10 in the NCAA
Division II National Championship Quarterfinal. With the win,
Adelphi improves to 17-1 overall, setting a new program record for
wins, while the Golden Lions fall to 12-5.
Tuttle and Joe Celano led
the Adelphi offense, combining for five of the Panthers eight
goals. Tuttle led all players with four points on three goals and
an assists, while Celano was just a point behind, thanks to two
goals and one helper. Joseph
Sciara, Tim Daly,
and Robert Rossi accounted
for the home teams other three tallies,
while Luke Spitzer chipped in
an assist.
Sciara added two caused turnovers to his out put on the day,
while Gregory Puskuldjian was
dominant on the face-off, winning 12 of his 18 attempts and
grabbing a game-high eight ground balls. Bennardo was stellar in
goal for the Panthers, making a career-high 14 saves, including
several point blank stops.
The visitors got off to a hot start, scoring the first three goals
of the contest, with the final goal coming courtesy of Matt Crough,
with 5:19 remaining in the quarter. However, Tuttle had an answer
for the Panthers, beating Dowling's Frank Sommers with just 1:43
left in the quarter to make it a two goal game, 3-1, after 15
minutes of action.
Tuttle's goal did more then just get Adelphi on the board, it
sparked a 7-0 Panther rally that spanned more then two quarters and
coincided with a lock down of the Dowling attack by the Brown and
Gold defense. The second frame saw the home team score three
unanswered goals off the sticks of Daly, Tuttle and Sciara, to send
Adelphi into the intermission with a 4-3 edge.
The intermission would be longer then either team expected, thanks
to a lightning delay, but the Adelphi momentum held, as the
Panthers scored three more goals in the third period, as Celano
sandwiched two tallies around a Rossi goal. In all the Adelphi 7-0
run was started with 1:43 to go in the first quarter and lasted
until the15th minute of the fourth.
The visitors showed that they had some fight left in them during
the fourth quarter, scoring four goals during an almsot 10 minute
span, with the game tying goal coming with just 4:52 left on the
clock off the stick of Tom Cleary. Dowling would win the ensuing
face-off, and continued to control the ball in the final
minutes.
It seemed as if the Golden Lions had all the momentum, when Billy
Richardson came around the cage with just 74 seconds remaining in
the contest and fired the ball toward the Adelphi goal, But,
Bennardo was up to the task and turned the Dowling attempt aside,
giving the Panthers life.
A Golden Lion time out with 58 seconds left gave the home team the
ball in their offensive third and after some movement, Tuttle ended
up with the ball near the top of the top of the zone, with less
then 15 seconds left he swept right to left, beat two Dowling
defenders and ripped a shot from eight yards out that put a ripple
in the Golden Lion goal and sent the Panthers to the Final Four,
8-7.
Up
Next
Adelphi will return to action on Sunday, May 18 when they welcome
cross-island rival, LIU-Post to Motamed Field for an NCAA Division
II National Semifinal at a time to be determined.
