Men’s Lax Loses a Heartbreaker to Navy: Raiders Cannot Hold Late Lead Down the Stretch

 

 

The men’s lacrosse team suffered a tough loss last Saturday, as they were downed by the Navy Midshipmen 10-9 in overtime. The disappointing defeat ran the Raiders’ losing streak to five games. Navy senior midfielder Patrick Moran was able to tally the game winner 1:38 into the first overtime to give the Midshipmen the comeback victory. Moran also tallied the game-tying goal with 20 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime. The team’s last two meetings have been decided in overtime, with Navy emerging victorious in both.

The Raiders started out hot as Hades as they tallied the first three goals of the game, two of which came from first-year midfielder Peter Baum, and the other coming from junior attackman Andrew Mould. Navy was able to get on the board with just over three minutes to go when first-year midfielder Jordan Seivold was able to beat Colgate sophomore goalie Jared Madison upstairs from about 10 yards. The Raiders responded with a goal by junior midfielder David Tucciarone to bump the lead back up to three.

Navy quickly responded, however, when midfielder senior Robby Battle won the ensuing face-off and found senior attackman Brendan Connors for the goal. The period ended with the Raiders doubling up the Midshipmen 4-2.

The Raiders continued their strong play in the second quarter, getting goals from attackman senior Zack Craumer and attackman junior Ben McCabe. Craumer provided the assist on McCabe’s score as he received the pass behind the goal and was able to make a quick move to the front of the goal and slide his shot past Navy

sophomore goalie RJ Wickham.

The Colgate defense looked strong in this period as they kept the Mids off the board for nearly 15 minutes, but Moran ended the scoring drought for Navy tallying his first of the game with 2:16 to go in the second period.

Navy scored the first goal of the third period to cut the lead down to two goals for the third time in the game. Their goal came on the man-advantage and was put home by junior midfielder Marty Gallagher. Navy was able to convert on both of the man-advantage

opportunities on the day. Colgate then bounced back with a pair of goals of their own with consecutive scores from Baum and McCabe. It looked as if the Raiders would head into the final period with the 8-4 advantage, which matched their largest lead of the game and of the season, but Navy was able to get another late period goal to trim the lead to 8-5.

The Midshipmen carried this momentum into the fourth period as they put home the first three goals of the fourth quarter to tie it up with five minutes left in the game.

Nevertheless, the Raiders bounced back when sophomore attackman Pat Campbell found a wide open Baum five yards in-front of the Navy goal. Baum got the best of Wickham in their one-on-one and put home his career high fourth goal of the game to give the Raiders a lead with just three minutes left to go in the contest.

It appeared as if Colgate was going to come out with a well-earned victory when they forced a Navy turnover with just over two minutes to go. On the ensuing possession Colgate was able to run the clock down to just 36 seconds before Navy was able to create a turnover of their own. This set up Moran’s game tying goal and the ensuing overtime period, where Moran would net the game winner.

Jared Madison stopped 12 shots between the pipes for the Raiders, two better than his opponent RJ Wickham, who only recorded 10 saves. Navy won the ground-ball battle 38-29, and outshot the Raiders 36-30. It was a heartbreaking defeat for Colgate, whose losing streak now sits at five games. All is not lost for the Raiders, however, as during this streak they have not lost a game by more than three goals.

The Raiders will look to bounce back this Saturday as they travel to West Point, NY to take on the Army Black Knights. The game is scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m.