March 31, 2007
The Fairfield University men's lacrosse team dropped its second straight road contest on Saturday, falling 11-10 to ECAC Lacrosse League foe Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., in heartbreaking fashion. The Stags are now 5-2 on the year and 1-2 in league play, while the Statesmen improve to 4-4 on the year and 1-2 in conference action.
Trailing by a goal, 11-10, with 12 seconds to play, the Stags had the ball at midfield following a timeout. Chris Manley fed Greg Downing who took a low shot, which was stopped by Max Silberlicht. The rebound was loose in front of the crease but the Stags could not push the ball across the goal line before time expired.
Fairfield trailed 8-7 after three quarters of play, and knotted the score on a Travis Nelson goal 68 seconds in the final quarter, netting a Brendan Finnerty pass. Hobart's Sean Murphy broke the tie with a goal at the 12:14 mark, going coast-to-coast for the tally. That goals started a 3-0 run to put the Statesmen ahead 11-8 with 4:22 to play.
Jamie Kirk scored the 10th goal of the game for Hobart, at 8:23, following an interesting situation. The Stags appeared to have Hobart stopped on a clear attempt when the referees blew the whistle for an apparent offsides call. After a recount however, the officials decided that the Statesmen were in fact on side, and gave them a virtual free clear, positioning the restart on the offensive side of midfield, leading to the goal. Kirk scored the goal at 4:22 as well, which would prove to be the game-winner.
The Stags would not go quietly however. Dan Boudreau scored on a low shot with 3:22 to play, to make the score 11-10. Silberlicht made a pair of point blank saves, with 107 and 65 seconds to play. Greg Downing cut the lead to just one, 11-10, scoring his first of the game with 23 seconds to play.
Sean Fay won the final face-off for the Stags setting up the final second disappointment. Fay won 9-16 face-offs for the Stags, who won 11-24 as a team.
Travis Nelson had three goals and an assist to lead the Stags on the offensive end. Nelson recorded his second man-down goal of the year. Downing had the goal and three assists, to also finish with four points. Boudreau scored twice for Fairfield, and Finnerty added two assists.
Mike Bocklet was held without a point on the day, snapping a 19-game consecutive scoring stretch for the Stags senior. The streak, which began in the Stags opener against Holy Cross I 2006, was the 17th longest active streak in the nation.
Fairfield controlled play for a majority of the contest, out shooting the host 45-33. The Stags cleared 17-20, 85 percent, while riding the Statesmen to just 17-29. Fairfield was penalized five times, with Hobart scoring twice, while the Statesmen were called for one penalty, for one Fairfield man-up goal.
Kruger played well for the Stags, making seven saves in the game. In the first half he kept the Stags in the game, with a point blank save on a shot from Daryl Veltman with 7:24 to play in the quarter, to keep the score at 4-3. His save near the end of the first half also kept Hobart close, and led to a Stag tally.
Silberlicht made 17 saves for Hobart in his first collegiate start. Kirk finished the game with six points, on two goals and four assists. David scored three goals and had one assist, while Veltman finished with three tallies.
Fairfield controlled the ball for a majority of the first quarter, but was trailing 2-0 when the Stags went man-down with 27 seconds to play. Fairfield intercepted a pass and Matt Petre cleared the ball, passing to Mike Bocklet for a shot that was saved, but rebounded to Travis Nelson, who deposited the ball at the buzzer. Andrew Urquhart won the face-off to start the second quarter, leading to Chris Ajemian scoring the tying goal, just eight seconds into the second quarter.
The momentum was short lived however as Hobart scored the next two goals, to take a 4-2 lead. Kruger intercepted a pass to help kill a penalty. Downing was slashed as the Stags killed off that penalty, which led to a Nelson man-up goal, from a pass of Downing, at 10:06, and a 4-3 Hobart lead.
Hobart took a 5-3 lead with a goal by David at 4:26. The Statesmen received a man-up chance at that point and converted at thee 3:57 mark. The Stags, with the help of a Mike Kruger save, killed off a penalty as the half began to wind down. Fairfield pressed the ball in the final minute of play, resulting in a goal by Casey Martin, his first of the year, with just nine seconds to play in the half and sent the teams to the locker room down just 6-4.
Fairfield scored the first three goals of the third quarter, to take their first lead of the game, on a Chris Manley goal, from Travis Nelson, with 7:51 to play in the third quarter. Chris Campbell cut the lead to one, with his first of the year, from a Brendan Finnerty pass at 11:12. Dan Boudreau knotted the score, for the first time since it was 2-2, eight seconds into the second quarter with a goal at 9:28.
Chris David tied the score, 7-7, snapping a 4-0 Fairfield run, with 4:35 to play in the third quarter, as he deposited a Nick Currie pass. Daryl Veltman put the Statesmen back in front, with his third goal of the game, on a pass from Jamie Kirk, with 2:35 to play in the third. Mike Kruger kept the deficit at just one entering the final quarter with a point blank save on a Jeff Colburn shot with four seconds to play.
The Stags loss marked their first to Hobart since the series began in 2005, and lead the series 2-1.
The Stags play the final game of a season-long three-game road swing at Georgetown on Saturday, April 7, with face-off scheduled for 1 p.m. in Washington, D.C.
