Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/16/18
From Press Release
A battle. That’s the best way to describe Lafayette men’s lacrosse’s double-overtime victory over Wagner on Friday evening as senior co-captain Will McCarthy picked up the ground ball off the opening faceoff of the second extra session and deposited it in the left side of the net for the 8-7 win at Fisher Stadium.
Lafayette, trailing 7-5 into the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, mounted a comeback on the back of sophomore Adam Close (Wilson). Close netted a goal off an assist from senior Alex Mezey (Conestoga) at 5:30 to cut it to one, and then junior Conor Walters found Close with 2:44 left to knot the game at 7-7.
The first overtime featured just one possession from either team with neither able to find a winner. But the second didn’t last long. Sophomore John Becker, who dominated at the X for much of the game winning 12-of-19 faceoffs, gained the front foot and scooped the ball into the offensive zone where it popped up to the stick of McCarthy as his quick shot beat Wagner goalie Matt Sefcik to finish it off.
The win improves the Leopards to 2-1 on the season and served as an entertaining start to the home slate for the Maroon and White. Wagner drops to 1-1 on the year.
Walters got the scoring started midway through the first quarter off a feed from Close, but Wagner responded with a pair to gain a 2-1 edge with 4:40 left in the opening stanza. Lafayette closed the first with a pair of unassisted tallies by freshman Bryan Hess and senior co-captain Matt Close to go into the second with a 3-2 advantage.
The Seahawks opened the second with two markers to regain a 4-3 lead, but Matt Close found rookie John Natoli with 16 seconds left to push the game into the break knotted at 4-4.
Wagner scored the lone goal in the third quarter and two of the first three in the fourth to put a two-goal cushion in their lead at 7-5. That was erased, though, as the Leopards fought to come back and finish it off.
Adam Close and Walters led Lafayette offensively with two goals and one assist each, while Matt Close (Wilson) added one of each and McCarthy, Natoli and Hess rounded it out. Shots finished in favor of Lafayette by a 40-20 margin with Sefcik making 14 saves in defeat. Junior Jonathan Anastos picked up the victory between the pipes with six saves on the day.
Defensive play was the difference for Lafayette, forcing seven failed clears in 26 attempts by Wagner and allowing just one extra-man goal in four tries. Ground balls finished just about even with the Seahawks holding the slight 33-32 edge.
Andrew Streilein (Lenape-NJ) had three assists for Wagner while Connor Davis (Bishop Shanahan) and Aaron Denesevich (St. Augustine Prep-NJ) each had a goal.