Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/17/24
From Press Release
Witt Crawford’s first collegiate goal in double overtime gave Drexel an unlikely 11-10 victory in its season opener at UMBC. The Dragons trailed by three midway through the fourth quarter but tied the game to force the extra session. Conor Hooley scored four goals to lead the Dragons, while Drew McGill made 15 saves in goal.
The Dragons led at the half by two goals, but UMBC dominated the third quarter. The Retrievers shut out the Dragons in the third, took an 8-6 lead, and then added another to start the fourth quarter. The Dragons finally broke the run when Luke Tomak netted his second of the game with 11:18 to play. UMBC regained a three-goal lead when Jordan Galloway beat Drew McGill to make the score 10-7.
Hooley started the Dragons’ comeback when he scored his third of the game, this one an unassisted score, with just under 10 minutes to go in the contest. Four minutes later, Hooley was at it again. His fourth goal gave life to the Drexel bench as the margin was trimmed to 10-9 with 5:30 remaining. The Dragons came up with a defensive stop and evened the game in transition with just under four minutes to play. Freshman Nate Bradley found short stick Tate Kienzle who found a lane and made his first goal as a Dragon a memorable one.
In the first overtime period, it appeared for a moment as though the Retrievers won the game. However, UMBC’s apparent goal was waved off due to a shot clock violation. The game remained tied and went to a second overtime. McGill made a save and got Drexel the ball back. Later in the second extra stanza Zach Augustine (Avon Grove) had possession behind the cage. He found Crawford out in front, and the redshirt freshmen gave Drexel the opening day victory with just 36 seconds left.
Hooley picked up his third career hat trick. Tomak was Drexel’s only other multiple goal scorer. Sean Curcio (Manheim Township) recorded a pair of assists as the Dragons made the most of their 34 shots. UMBC had 49 shots, but McGill came up big most of the night. Each team won 13 face-offs, but Drexel’s Connor Beals had an impact in his first game. The graduate student won 12 of his 18 draws and led the Dragons with six ground balls.
Freshman Nate Bradley (Academy of the New Church) had two groundballs and an assist for Drexel while defenseman Collin Gucwa (Bishop Shanahan) had two groundballs.
Corey Myers, Jordan Galloway and Mateo Brown each scored two goals. Zach Didley had seven ground balls and the face-off specialist was 13-for-24.
UMBC got the scoring going early in the game. With just 52 seconds gone, Drexel turned the ball over and UMBC’s long stick Ethan Robinson picked up the loose ball, raced all the way down the field and scored. The Dragons answered right away when Gavin Kelly scored his first collegiate goal from Curcio. Zach Augustine gave DU its first lead of the season at the 8:53 mark. It stayed that way until UMBC evened the score with a minute left to go as Brian Tregoning bounced a shot over the shoulder of McGill.
The Dragons played well in the second quarter, scoring four of the first five goals of the quarter to take a 6-3 lead. Conor Hooley started the scoring at the 12:23 mark when he crammed a shot between the post and the UMBC goalie. Drexel took a two-goal lead when Liam Kammar cleared the ball into the UMBC zone. In transition, Kammar found Max Semple from straight on making it 4-2. The Retrievers stopped Drexel’s momentum when Brown scored on an unassisted tally from the right alley. It took Drexel just 35 seconds to answer. Awaiting a delayed penalty, Tomak faked left, then went right and fired a 12-yard shot for his first of the year. The Dragons got their biggest lead of the game when Hooley bullied his way from behind the net to the crease and deposited his second of the night. UMBC was able to trim the lead to 6-4 at the half with a late goal from Myers.
