NEWTON, MA- Lasell College will play in the inaugural Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's lacrosse tournament championship on Saturday after defeating Norwich University, 13-9, in the semi-final round today on Grellier Field. The second seeded Lasers will clash against regular season champion, and number one seeded Mount Ida College in the final on the Mustangs home field. No. 3 seeded Norwich completes their journey in GNAC post-season play with an 8-5 overall record.
The first half of the semi-final contest was a back-and-forth affair as the teams traded the lead twice before Lasell ultimately ended the first quarter up 3-2. Dan Clark (Scarborough, ME) put up the first goal, unassisted 2:25 into the period for the Lasers, followed by a solo goal by Norwich's Tyler Woods (Essex Jct, VT) to even the score just 34 seconds later.
Norwich's Ian Mendoza (Mount Airy, MD) put the visitors ahead off the ensuing faceoff when he was hit by Tyler Nicoll (Huntsville, UT) for the 2-1 edge at 11:20.
Dylan Fernandes (Billerica, MA) and Chris Bulkley (Groton, CT) paired up for the game-tying goal at 8:06 and Dylan Gray (Bayport, NY) gave the two seed back the edge, 3-2, with 5:36 left to play in the period.
Eric Walsh (Weymouth, MA) came up big for Lasell in the cage as he made seven stops in the first stanza on 11 Norwich on-frame attempts.
After Nate Fortezzo (Branford, CT) won his fifth face-off of the game to start the 2nd quarter, Patrick Sikora (Montpelier, VT) scored 49 seconds into the stanza to level out the score once more. Four minutes later, the Cadets took over control of the scoreboard for the second time after Macro Wiedenraenders (Denver, CO) curled from behind the net to score unassisted with a defender in his face.
Lasell responded within two minutes on an attack by Jon Elia (East Lyme, CT). After a Norwich turnover at 9:46, Elia converted on a pass by Fernandes for the final tie of the game, 4-4, which also set in motion a 5-0 run by the Lasers.
Sean Speciale (Hillsborough, NJ) gave the hosts the lead back at 7:48 with an unaided opportunity coming from behind the goal to score. An Adam Foss (Billerica, MA) scoop shot and back-to-back marks by Fernandes, including an extra-man goal to start the third quarter, capped the Lasers run and put them on top by double, 8-4.
At 9:35, after a Fortezzo shot was off the mark, Joe Galante (Framingham, MA) cut into Lasell's advantage when he scored after picking up the rebound off of Fortezzo's effort. Fernandes and Foss added tallies which left Lasell doubled up on Norwich, 10-5, before the teams were forced to surrender the field due to thundershowers.
Upon returning to action after a forty minute weather related interlude, Norwich rallied for a 4-0 run to cut their deficit to just one, 10-9. The Cadets scored three goals in final 1:39 of the third period, beginning with the tandem pairings of Wiedenraenders and Mendoza for the first goal and Galante and Wiedenraenders for the second goal while man-up.
Andrew Dustin (Canterbury, NH) scored the third mark in the minute and a half stretch with a mere 1.8 seconds on the clock. Dustin recovered the ball off a previous Walsh save and sniped in the goal, bringing the score to 10-8.
Less than a minute into the final period, Sikora capped the Cadet 4-0 run faking a shot to the left side and shooting right for the one-goal shortage.
Lasell finally broke up their eight minute scoring drought when Bulkley set up Ladson Shaello-Johnson (Binghamton, NY) for a goal as he cut down the lane at 13:04. Bulkley followed that by hitting Fernandes for his fifth goal, at 7:23, giving Lasell a three-goal cushion, 12-9.
Lasell maintained possession for the majority of the remaining minutes. Nick Sampson (Londonderry, NH) added another goal in the final four minutes of the game to bring about the 13-9 result.
The Cadets outshot the Lasers 42-26 in the contest, attacking on-target 60% of the time (25-42), while also winning the ground ball battle 35-21. Lasell's on-goal percentage was 76.9% through the contest with 20-of-26 shots on net. Walsh finished the game with 16 saves and the win while Mark Paradiso (Westford, MA) stopped seven chances in the defeat.
In the losing effort, Fortezzo was victorious in the face-off arena, securing 20-of-25 total opportunities while also grabbing nine ground balls. Galante, Mendoza, and Sikora each notched two points each and Wiederaend topped the Cadets with three points, scoring twice and adding a helper. Dustin corralled a game-best 10 ground balls.
Lasell's Fernandes took top honors on offense with six points, netting five goals and dishing out one assist. Bulkley and Foss finished with three points and Clark added two for the Lasers. Foss' final goal at 6:39 in the third, hit just moments before the game was interrupted for lightning, proved to be the game winner.
On Saturday, April 30th, the Lasers (9-7, 6-1 GNAC) will head down the road to rival Mount Ida College for the GNAC championship title game. The Mustangs handed Lasell their only GNAC loss of the season (7-6) just over one week ago to seal the home-field advantage in the playoffs. Time of the deciding contest has yet to be determined.