Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/18/23
From Press Release
The Muhlenberg men’s lacrosse team made a spectacular season debut, taking two-time defending national champion RIT to triple overtime before falling, 10-9, in Allentown.
The Mules jumped out to a 4-1 lead before giving up seven straight goals. They entered the fourth quarter trailing 9-5 before staging an incredible comeback, netting four goals in a span of 6:37 to tie the score.
The game remained tied at 9-9 for more than 15 minutes, through the first two overtime periods, before the Tigers finally ended the marathon with 2:06 left in the third overtime.
Four players scored two goals apiece for the Mules – senior Jason Metz (Exeter), junior Wyatt Malia (Crestwood) and sophomores Andrew Sellitto and Tyler Kitchen. Malia added 3 assists and Metz 2.
Senior Max May made 16 saves to help hold RIT to single digits in regulation for the first time since 2018. Juniors Aidan Murphy and Matthew Regan each picked up 3 ground balls on defense, and senior Ryan Johnson recorded 2 ground balls and caused a pair of turnovers.
The Tigers scored the first goal of the game, less than two minutes in, but Muhlenberg took advantage of a non-releasable penalty to take the lead on goals by Malia and Kitchen. Tallies by Metz and graduate student Ethan Grossman made it 4-1 at the end of the first quarter.
A turning point came in between quarters, when the Mules were flagged for an illegal stick. RIT scored four goals with the man advantage to take the lead and added three more scores in the period.
Other than the second period, Muhlenberg outscored RIT 9-2 in the other 45 minutes of regulation.
Kitchen, who scored two goals all last season, sandwiched his second of the game in between two by Sellitto, who scored one all last season, in the fourth quarter. Sellitto’s went top shelf with 6:21 left to tie the score.
Both teams had good chances to end the game before RIT finally did in the third overtime.
