Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/13/11
Chestnut Hill College pulled off perhaps the biggest men’s lacrosse upset in recent years today as freshman Mike Landau (Hempfield) scored 1:14 into overtime to give the host Griffins an 8-7 triumph over Mercyhurst College, the No. 2 team in the nation in Division II.
Chestnut Hill College – a second-year program – improved to 3-2 and claimed its first East Coast Conference win (1-2 record) ever. Mercyhurst came into play with a 3-0 overall mark.
The Lakers seized a 3-0 first-period lead, but Chestnut Hill closed to within, 3-2, at halftime and later took a 7-6 lead with 1:22 left on an unassisted goal from sophomore midfielder Mark Winkelspect (Parkland). Mercyhurst, though, sent it into overtime with 12 seconds left in regulation.
“I’m just so pumped up for our guys,” said CHC first-year coach Brian Dougherty, the Episcopal Academy alum who helped lead Team USA to the World Championship last summer and recently got inducted into the Eastern PA Chapter of the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame. “We have worked so hard.
“Being a second-year team, with all freshmen and sophomores, we really battled. It was a back-and-forth game against the No. 2-ranked team. It wasn’t like our goalie made 40 saves or we got lucky.”
Goalie Dakota Maurer (Warwick High) did have an excellent game and made 13 saves. Sophomore midfielder Alex Sabia (Roman Catholic) was a key at the face-off X, winning 8 of 11 draws and scooping six groundballs. Winkelspecht finished the game as the Griffins high scorer with three goals and an assist and Landau scored twice and provided an assist while sophomore attack Shane Morlock contributed a goal and two assists.
Dougherty said the win is a big boost to a young program.
“They scored with 12 seconds left and we could have folded,” he said. “Then they get the draw to open the overtime and had a chance to win it, but our goalie makes a great save and we come back and get the game-winner.
“This is a huge game and we’re so happy,” he added. “We’ll totally enjoy this, but we’ve got a lot of games left and we have to keep going.
“This is a team that is so young and it’s so early. There will be ups and downs. We’ll enjoy this moment; it’s our first conference win ever. We were 0-10 last year. It’s our first overtime win and our first win against a Top 5 team, so it feels awesome.”
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