Ephs Men's Lacrosse Lose Lead, Falls in Overtime
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Williams College men's lacrosse team (1-2) was unable to protect a 7-4 lead over the last half of the fourth quarter and ended up losing to Catholic University (4-6), 8-7, in overtime.
The Catholic University Cardinals scored the gamewinning goal at 1:26 of the overtime session when they capitalized on a man-up opportunity. Walter Hickey's second goal of the game, this one set up by Camden Feldman, was the difference.
Three of Catholic's goals came from five man-up opportunities created by Eph penalties.
"I think tonight was comparable to our Wesleyan game," said Eph head coach George McCormack. "We had a victory in our hands, but we need to learn how to close out teams. We're 1-2 right now and we could be 3-0, but it is a learning process.
"Credit Catholic, they made some big plays at critical times. We're getting there. We've made some real positive strides and I'm looking forward to playing Connecticut College on Saturday."
The Ephs scored the only two goals of the first quarter in a 1:34 span when Jack Lauroesch scored off a feed from Bryson Gilbert-Bono at 5:55 and then Lauroesch set up Michael Hellstern for a goal at 4:39.
The Ephs and the Cardinals traded goals in the second period with each team scoring twice. The Cardinals' Walter Hickey netted an early tally (14:16) that was answered by the Ephs' Tanner MacIvor's unassisted goal almost 8 minutes later.
With 59 seconds remaining in the second quarter Evan Dedominicis gave the Ephs a two-goal cushion when he scored unassisted, offsetting a Catholic goal by Brendan Englert at 2:48. The Ephs led 4-2 at the half.
Dedominicis scored off a pass from Andy Grabowski to offset a Catholic goal in the third period and then with 6:43 left in the quarter Grabowski was set up for a score by Steven Kiesel. The Eph lead was three at the end of three quarters, 6-3.
Dedominicis recorded a hat trick when he notched his third goal of the contest off a pass from Grabowski with 7:39 to play in the final frame, putting the Ephs up 7-4.
After the Dedominicis goal the Catholic offense caught fire and the Cardinals rang up three unanswered goals with the last coming on an unassisted effort by Brendan Englert with just 23 seconds left.
The Cardinals' Nathan Chan had put Catholic in a position to tie by scoring his team's two previous goals in the quarter, one coming off a man-up opportunity (6:19) and the second an unassisted score at 3:25.
Eph junior faceoff man David Lee posted another strong showing winning 13 of 18 faceoffs on the night. The Ephs fired 24 shots on goal to Catholic's 16, but hurt themselves with five penalties to the Cardinals' two.
Eph goalie Dan Whittam stopped eight Catholic shots and allowed eight goals in 62:14, while his counterpart from Catholic, Harrison Holak, made 17 saves and allowed seven goals.
Williams collected three more ground balls than Catholic, 16-13, and the Ephs also had five turnovers less than the Cardinals who were assessed with 16.
Next up for the Ephs is another road contest. The Ephs will play a New England Small College Athletic Conference game against Connecticut College on the campus of Goucher College in Towson, Md., on Saturday at 4 p.m.
