Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/7/23
From Press Release
Jack Clyne’s goal in the final seconds of the game secured a 10-9 win for the Chestnut Hill College Men’s Lacrosse team as it captured its third consecutive Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference championship Sunday afternoon at LaMoy field in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Clyne’s goal capped a three-goal rally that saw the Griffins come back from a two-goal deficit in the final eight minutes to take home the championship trophy for the third time since 2018. Chestnut Hill has played in the CACC championship game every season since the conference began sponsoring men’s lacrosse (no game in 2020- COVID) in 2018.
The goal was Clyne’s second of the game as he scored the Griffins’ first goal at the 13:38 mark of the first quarter.
While momentum was on the Griffins’ side in the first half as they jumped out to a 6-1 lead by halftime, it dramatically shifted back to favor the top-seed Lions as GCU scored six unanswered goals in the third quarter to take a 7-6 lead.
Will Duddy’s third goal of the game just 43 seconds into the fourth quarter tied the game at 7-7. It was Duddy’s 18th goal of the season after missing the majority of last year and the first game of this season with a knee injury.
The Lions scored twice more as the quarter continued taking a 9-7 lead, their biggest of the game with 8:39 left. The Griffins then went to work on their comeback.
Zachary Schultz won the faceoff after GCU’s ninth goal and took the ball in for a shot that sailed wide. The Griffins maintained possession and thirty seconds later, Nate Matthews found Noah Hammon open for his first goal of the game and 35th of the season to pull the Griffins within one 9-8.
Four minutes later after some sloppy play from both teams, the Griffins capitalized on a turnover as Zachary Whalen (Emmaus) tallied the equalizer with an assist from Clyne with 4:09 left.
The two teams exchanged shots on goal over the next 90 seconds with CHC goalkeeper Austin Jones making the last of his ten saves with 2:38 remaining. After the Griffins forced a turnover with about a minute left, the Griffins called timeout to set up a play with 55 seconds left. The Griffins worked the ball around until they found Clyne on the left side who fired a shot past GCU goalkeeper Vince Burkhart with 4.7 seconds left for the go-ahead score.
The Lions did win the final faceoff but could not get a shot off as the Griffins held on for the win.
Jones had ten saves in the game to go along with his 20 from Friday – earning Tournament MVP honors for the second consecutive year.
Clyne, Duddy, Hammon, and Cade Johnson, who scored three goals in the first half joined Jones on the all-tournament team
