Wildcats Clip Men's Lacrosse in Overtime 7-6

NEWTON, Mass. (4/4/15) – Johnson and Wales freshman attack Max Stone (Burlington, Conn.) was the deciding factor in a 7-6 men's lacrosse Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) contest played at Grellier Field on Saturday afternoon. The loss drops the Lasers to 6-4 on the year and 3-2 in GNAC play, while the Wildcats climb to 4-6 overall and even out at 2-2 in the conference.

The Lasers were paced by junior attack Casey Sullivan (Quaker Hill, Conn.) with two goals and one assist. Junior attackmen Andrew Suh (Colchester, Conn.) and Pat Egan, senior middy Aaron LaPorte (Gorham, Maine) and senior attack Robbie Palazzo (Redding, Conn.) each found the back of the net once in the losing effort.

Stone led the Wildcats with a hat-trick and two assists, while freshman attack Sam Sears (Baltimore, Md.), sophomore middy Tj Consiglio (New Fairfield, Conn.) and sophomore attack Brian Hillenbrand (Portsmouth, R.I.) each tallied a single marker for the visitors.

Egan opened the scoring at 7:50 after a ground ball pickup to find the back of the cage via a feed from Sullivan. The visitors wasted no time on the response, scoring 38 second later from Consiglio to even out at 1-1. The Lasers scored back-to-back goals at 3:14 and 2:41 from Suh and LaPorte, giving the home team the 3-1 cushion.

The Wildcats fired back with a goal by Sears, courtesy of a pass by Stone, to head into the second quarter trailing the Lasers 3-2. Stone struck again at 10:52 to knot the score at three, where Lasers' Palazzo took a diving shot that found the top right of the net. The Lasers were able to scramble out of a man-up opportunity for the Wildcats, and closed the third quarter 4-3.

Two consecutive goals from Sullivan put the Lasers at 6-3 with 11:11 left to go in regulation, however, Hillenbrand then drove to the net after the faceoff to cut the deficit by two (6-4). Stone snuck in the late goal in the third quarter, before assisting the final goal in regulation (6-6) to force the game into overtime.

Wildcats' junior middy Brett Leighton (Scarborough, Maine) grabbed the ball from the overtime faceoff, followed by a JWU timeout at 3:40. 11 seconds later, Stone drove to the net for what was the deciding goal of a 7-6 overtime win for the Wildcats.

The Lasers held a slim 34-33 and 35-34 margin in ground balls and shots, respectively, while JWU goalkeeper JC Guido (Miller Place, N.Y.) had 16 stops on the day compared to Lasers' junior goalie David Walen's (Longmeadow, Mass.) 10 total saves. With the win, Guido improves to 3-5 on the year while Walen drops to 4-4.

Both teams jump back into GNAC action on the road on Wednesday, April 8. The Lasers head to Norwich University for a game under the lights at 7:00 p.m., while the Wildcats play Albertus Magnus College at 3:00 p.m.