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the Racquette
April 1, 2016
Bears Rally to Down Mustangs in Triple OT Thriller Dan Bronson Contributing Writer Senior captain Ed Doherty (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) scored with 16 seconds remaining in triple overtime to give the SUNY Potsdam men’s lacrosse team (5-1) a 9-8 victory over Morrisville State (3-2) on Saturday afternoon. Junior attackman Berkley Stone (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) led all scorers with four goals and senior captain Pat Bonafede (Churchville, N.Y./ChurchvilleChili) contributed a goal and two assists. Between the pipes, senior captain Pete Gropp (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) made 10 saves for his 11th career win. The see-saw battle started almost immediately. Louie Geswaldo opened the scoring
2:48 into the contest to give the Mustangs their first lead of the day. Just 45 seconds later, Bonafede set up Stone to tie the game. Morrisville struck again at 8:37 with a goal from Storm Adams, but Stone and Bonafede answered with consecutive goals to give Potsdam the lead with 2:07 remaining in the opening quarter. Sophomore attackman Eric Soderquist (Watertown, N.Y./Watertown) assisted on Stone’s second marker. The Bears held a 3-2 advantage after 15 minutes. Kyle Shannon got the Mustangs even at 10:59 of the second quarter with a man-up goal. Soderquist countered with an assist from senior midfielder Brian Martin (Fairport, N.Y./ Fairport) at 9:34 to make it 4-3 Potsdam. Logan Peterson tied
the game two minutes later, but Martin set up sophomore midfielder Nick Orsini (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) to put Potsdam back in front 5-4 at 5:32. Adams notched his second of the game at 4:01 and the teams entered the break even at 5-5. The Mustangs outscored the Bears 3-1 in the third quarter. Geswaldo buried his second at 13:25 before Stone scored his third of the game exactly a minute later to make it 6-6. However, Morrisville’s Corey Grace made the most of an extra-man opportunity and John Sherlock made it 8-6 Mustangs with 1:39 left. The fourth quarter was a tightly played defensive battle. There was no change in the score until 4:38. Stone buried his fourth of the con-
Junior attackman Berkley Stone snags the ball and heads toward the goal
test to close the gap to 8-7. Just over two minutes later, junior midfielder Matt Moran (Watertown, N.Y./Immaculate Heart) tied the game. Each team had two shots in the final 30 seconds but couldn’t get the game-winner in regulation. Gropp made three saves in the first overtime and the game remained tied. Potsdam put two of its three shots on Chris Fiore in the second overtime, but the Mustang goalie turned them both aside. In the third overtime, senior defender Lindsey Pound (Henderson, N.Y./Immaculate Heart) forced a turnover with 55 seconds left and Doherty picked up the ground ball. With 16.2 seconds remaining, Bonafede got the ball back to Doherty, and he
Annual
Photo by Diane Stone
UPCOMING GAMES April 1: Women’s Softball (DH) at Buffalo State at 3 p.m. April 2: Women’s Softball (DH) at Fredonia at noon April 2: Men’s Lacrosse vs Oneonta at 1 p.m. April 2: Women’s Lacrosse at Buffalo State at 1 p.m. April 5: Women’s Lacrosse at Cortland at 4 p.m. April 5: Men’s Lacrosse vs Canton at 7 p.m.
ripped it past Fiore to end the contest. Fiore made 10 stops on the afternoon. Potsdam outshot Morrisville 37-31 and the Mustangs edged the Bears 31-29 on ground balls. Potsdam caused 18 of the Mustangs’ 28 turnovers on the day. The Bears were 0-for-2 on in extra-man opportunities and Morrisville finished 2-for-5. The win was Potsdam’s fifth in a row, its longest winning streak since 2001. The program record is six straight victories set in 1998. The Bears are also two wins shy of matching the program-best 7-1 start set in 1984. Potsdam looks to keep its momentum going when it hosts SUNY Oneonta at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.