Box Score
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—The Western New England University men's lacrosse team fell in its regular season finale, 13-12, to Endicott College Wednesday night at Golden Bear Stadium. The hard-fought, back-and-forth contest determined who would earn the number one seed in the Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship, which begins this weekend. The Golden Bears (9-6, 7-1 CCC) finish tied atop the conference standings with the Gulls (12-5, 7-1 CCC), but Endicott earned the top seed with the win, while Western New England ends up with the two seed--and both teams earn first-round byes.
Ryan Marcus scored with 25 seconds remaining in the contest to bring the Golden Bears within one, and the home team was also awarded possession on the scoring play after a 1-minute illegal body check penalty by Endicott's Lucas Paratore.
Owen Caruso had a good shot at tying the game with three seconds remaining, but his attempt whistled wide of the net as time expired.
The Golden Bears started off the game strong, scoring five goals in the first quarter and holding an early 5-1 lead before Endicott stormed back to make it 7-6 in WNE's favor at the half. Endicott attacker Nick Pinciaro, who netted three goals in the first half, got the visitors off to a good start in the third quarter, scoring 50 seconds in to knot the game up at 7.
The Gulls then continued their surge, scoring four of the next five goals to build an 11-8 lead two minutes into the fourth quarter. Western New England answered with three consecutive goals by attackers
Sean Lawton,
Jon Bota, and
Adam Knapton, to tie the game for a third time, this time at 11-11. Endicott's Harrison Cotter (three goals) scored his team's final goal with 3:20 remaining to make the score 13-11, and the Gulls would hold on to win 13-12.
Other than Marcus, Bota, Knapton and Lawton, the Golden Bears got a goal apiece from Caruso,
Nick Jez and Michael Donahue.
Brandon Body got the loss in goal, making six saves.
Endicott had a major advantage in terms of possession, thanks to face-off phenom Sam Ozycz, who was able to win 27 of his 28 draws. Ozycz led all players in ground balls by a wide margin, picking up 26. Cameron Bell was also spectacular in net for the Gulls, making 16 saves in the win.
Both Western New England and Endicott, who earned byes for the first round of the CCC Championship, will have to wait to find out their opponent next week. The Golden Bears will host the winner of the Roger Williams-Wentworth match-up next Wednesday at 4 p.m.
