FOXBORO, Mass. – The Le Moyne College men's lacrosse team came up just short in its quest for a third straight Division II National Championship and fell to NYIT, 16-11, in front of 24,317 at Gillette Stadium. The Dolphins finished the 2008 campaign at 15-2 and were led by Nick Gatto's three-goal performance. The Bears captured the program's fourth Division II crown and wrapped up the season at 13-1. Keith Henderson, the game's Most Outstanding Player, netted five goals for NYIT.
The Dolphins raced out to a 5-2 lead after one quarter of play and held a 14-6 advantage in the shots category in the game's first fifteen minutes. Five different Dolphins connected on first-quarter scores. Brian Welch sent in the game's first goal at the 9:08 mark and Gatto, Jack Venditti and Alex Bily followed with a trio of goals to push Le Moyne's lead to 4-1. After Henderson scored his first goal of the game, Brian Cost tallied with 31 seconds remaining to give the Dolphins their largest lead of the game.
NYIT scored a man-up goal, their first of three on the afternoon, and cut Le Moyne's lead to two when Austin Carino scored 13 seconds in to the second quarter. Henderson followed with his second goal of the game but Gatto contributed a man-up goal of his own to push Le Moyne's lead back to two. After the Bears countered with a Matt Sullivan score, Le Moyne's Mike McDonald netted his first of two goals to put the Dolphins back ahead by two. But NYIT countered with a four-goal attack in nine minutes, including two scores in the half's final 15 seconds.
Henderson tallied his fourth goal of the game just over 30 seconds in to the second half but Le Moyne responded with a pair of scores from Tom Donahue and Bily to trim the Bears' lead to one at 10-9. The seesaw affair continued throughout the third quarter. After an NYIT goal, McDonald scored his second goal of the game to trim NYIT's lead to 11-10 at the 3:46 mark of the third quarter. But with 49 seconds left in the third quarter, Henderson answered with his fifth goal of the afternoon and his 62nd of the 2008 campaign.
Gatto scored Le Moyne's final goal of the game at the 14:04 mark of the fourth quarter to bring the Dolphins within one at 12-11. But the Bears ended the game with four straight tallies, including a pair from the stick of Ryan Amengual.
Le Moyne's seniors carried a majority of the scoring load in the final game of the group's career. Gatto finished with three goals and McDonald and Bily each finished with two. Cost finished with three points, on a goal and two assists, and Donahue contributed two points of his own, with one goal and one assist.
A Dolphin defense, which had allowed a nation-best 3.27 goals per game coming into the game, allowed 16 goals for the first time since it allowed 20 scores against RIT in 1999. The team's man-down unit entered the game with a .889 success rate but surrendered three goals to the Bears' potent man-up attack. Goalkeeper Doug McIver finished with seven saves against NYIT's high-powered offense.
Le Moyne's senior class ends its time on the Heights with a 62-5 record that includes two National Championships and three Northeast-10 Conference Championships.
Michael Bersani – Sports Information Assistant
NYIT 16 Le Moyne 11
SCORE BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
-------------------------------------
NYIT.................... 2 7 3 4 - 16
Le Moyne............ 5 2 3 1 - 11
NYIT SCORING: GOALS: Henderson, Keith 5; Amengual, Ryan 3; Carino,
Austin 3; Messina, Matt 2; Flowers, Paul 2; Sullivan, Matt 1.
ASSISTS: Messina, Matt 3; Garcia, Jared 1; Sullivan, Matt 1.
Le Moyne SCORING: GOALS: Nick Gatto 3; Mike McDonald 2; Alex Bily 2;
Brian Cost 1; Jack Venditti 1; Tom Donahue 1; Brian Welch 1.
ASSISTS: Brian Cost 2; Alex Bily 1; Tom Donahue 1; Mike McDonald 1;
Mike Rabbitt 1; Jack Venditti 1.
Post Game Press Conference Quotes
HEAD COACH DAN SHEEHAN
Opening Statement
"This is the first time we've been in this game and haven't had a reason to jump up and down at the end of the game. We didn't play our best game today, but New York Tech played fantastic. They made three runs and we answered two of them and the third one led to the result that was on the scoreboard. Hats off to them and certainly hats off to our guys."
On the end of the first half
"We got in the locker room at halftime and said, 'Our best defense is going to be taking the air out of the ball.' I thought we reponded very well. We started inverting a little bit there in the third quarter. But, yeah, that hurt. It would have been nice to stay up and build on that 5-2 lead that we had. But the again {NYIT} is so explosive and they have guys at every position."
TOM DONAHUE, SENIOR , MIDFIELD
On the second quarter
"In the second quarter they went on a run like a couple times they did in the game and we just didn't quite have an answer. The goal right before halftime really hurt, putting us down two at the half."
BRIAN COST, SENIOR, ATTACK
On the NYIT Defense
"We have a zone offense, but their "D" was playing outstanding. We were shooting, but their goalie played outstanding and we just couldn't find the back of the net"
