An Inch Away: QU Men's Lacrosse Suffers Agonizing Overtime Loss in MAAC Semifinals

Thursday, May 3

West Long Branch, N.J.

12:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

9-6

Canisius College

7-8

Canisius

Quinnipiac

An Inch Away: QU Men's Lacrosse Suffers Agonizing Overtime Loss in MAAC Semifinals

5/3/2018 2:27:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

By: QU Athletic Communications

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — The top-seeded Quinnipiac men's lacrosse team led by a goal with 15 seconds left in regulation, and then hit the post in the opening moments of overtime, before the fourth-seeded Canisius Golden Griffins scored on their next possession to take an 11-10 win over the Bobcats on Thursday afternoon in the MAAC Semifinals at Monmouth's Kessler Stadium.

After going undefeated in the MAAC (6-0) in the regular season, including a 19-14 win over Canisius at home, the Bobcats end their campaign with a 9-6 record. Canisius, which received the tying goal from Carter Stefaniak with 12 seconds to play, and then got the game-winner from Ryan McKee with 2:59 left in overtime, improves to 7-8 and will advance to Saturday's finals against the winner of the Monmouth-Detroit Mercy semifinal.

Senior face-off specialist Will Vitelli won 19-of-25 face-offs and had his first career two-goal game. His first goal gave Quinnipiac a 1-0 lead six seconds into the contest, and the second gave the Bobcats a 10-9 advantage with 7:33 and nearly held up the rest of the way as the game-winner. On Canisius' second-to-last possession, senior short-stick defensive midfielder David Glynn forced a turnover with just under 2:00 left, and junior defender Bryce Nalls scooped up the ground ball.

The Bobcats worked the ball around until the stall warning came and shot at the end of the shot clock, but missed wide to give Canisius the ball with 37 seconds left. After calling a timeout, Connor Kearnan found McKee from the left wing with the tying goal with 12 seconds on the clock.

Vitelli won the ensuing face-off cleanly and rushed upfield with a potential hat trick and dramatic game-winner looming in front of him, but Canisius made a lunging stick check from behind to knock the ball free as he shot, and the remaining seconds ticked off to send the game into overtime.

Canisius earned a rare face-off win to start the overtime, but it almost played into Quinnipiac's favor, as junior attack Mike Fletcher made a heads-up defensive play to steal the ball at midfield while Golden Griffins goalkeeper Liam Ganzhorn was out of the net. Fletcher let fly at the empty cage from midfield, and the Bobcats seemed on their way to victory as no Golden Griffins stood between the ball and the net, but the ball caromed off the left post and stayed out, and Canisius was able to earn possession back after a sigh of relief.

The Golden Griffins called a timeout to settle down and then struck quickly for the game winner, as Kearnan took the ball on the left side and found McKee cutting to the middle from the weak side. McKee caught and shot in one motion, and sent the ball into the upper-right corner, and sent the Golden Griffins on to the finals.

Quinnipiac trailed 8-6 heading into the fourth quarter before coming alive offensively. Junior attack Foster Cuomo had back-to-back goals 52 seconds apart to tie the score with 13:21 remaining. The Bobcats then took their first lead since Vitelli's goal six seconds into the contest when junior midfielder Matt Frost found Fletcher on the doorstep to make the score 9-8 with 8:56 to go. Canisius tied it 1:03 later, but Vitelli scored after a long face-off battle 20 seconds later to give Quinnipiac its final lead.

Canisius scored three straight goals after the early 1-0 Bobcat lead and went ahead 6-3 early in the second quarter. Freshman midfielder Sam Witt stopped the momentum with a goal, and freshman Jake Tomsik scored with 3:26 left to cut it to 6-5. Stefaniak scored for Canisius with 21 seconds left in the half to make it 7-5 at the break, before senior Ryan Corcoran capped off a hat trick with a goal 1:42 into the second half to bring the Bobcats within one.

Sophomore goalie Joe Zukauskas finished with nine saves, including three big ones in the third quarter to keep the score stuck at 8-6, and a huge one in the closing minutes from the doorstep to enable the Bobcats to hold on to their 10-9 lead a little longer. Senior long-stick midfielder Adam Bellamy had seven ground balls to close out his career, his sixth straight game of seven or more.

The Bobcats will lose a 14-member senior class after this season, but will return their attack line of Fletcher, Cuomo and Tomsik as they try to get back to the NCAA Tournament next year.