Syracuse, N.Y. – Tournament Most Valuable Player Brad McAdam scored with eight-tenths of a second left in overtime to lead seventh-ranked Merrimack to a 12-11 upset of number-one ranked Le Moyne in the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Lacrosse Championship game on Sunday afternoon at the Thomas J. Niland Athletic Complex.
After a furious fourth-quarter comeback by the Dolphins, Merrimack won the opening face-off of overtime. Le Moyne sophomore goalkeeper Matt Krupka (Nedrow, N.Y./Onondaga) preserved the tie score by turning away a shot by McAdam 12 seconds in. Following a Merrimack timeout and subsequent turnover, the Dolphins had their first opportunity to end the game. Junior attackman Jack Harmatuk (Syracuse, N.Y./Syracuse U.) had a shot go narrowly wide with just under two minutes left and Merrimack goalkeeper Cory Spinale made a save with 32 seconds remaining to keep the tied. The Warriors cleared the ball and McAdam fired a shot over the crossbar with 6.4 seconds left. After the restart, McAdam drove to his right at the top of the box and rifled a shot in the back of the net in the final second.
The Dolphins forced overtime by scoring five goals in the final 4:51 of the fourth quarter. Senior attackman Keith Vetter (Jamesville, N.Y./Jamesville-DeWitt) started the rally with an unassisted goal at the 4:51 mark. Harmatuk pulled Le Moyne within 11-8 by scoring with 3:26 left in the contest. Junior Jack Venditti (Baldwinsville, N.Y./C.W. Baker) followed by scoring off a feed from Vetter 47 seconds later to make it a two-goal game. After Venditti had his shot blocked with 1:28 left, he picked up the loose ball left of the goal and shot it into the back of the net to get the Dolphins the closest they had been since the 11:18 mark of the third quarter. Merrimack won the ensuing face-off, but was whistled for a procedure violation to give the ball back to the Dolphins. Off a loose ball by the goal, junior Vinnie Alexander (Syracuse, N.Y./Onondaga C.C.) picked up the ball and fed Vetter, who scored with 37 seconds left from seven yards out just right of the right post. The Warriors gained possession on the next face-off, but got called for a crease violation with 12 seconds to go. Le Moyne cleared the ball out of its defensive end, but could not get off a shot before the quarter ended.
Harmatuk gave the Dolphins their first lead by scoring unassisted at the 9:38 mark of the opening quarter. The Warriors responded by scoring 44 seconds later on Greg Melaugh's 18th goal of the year. Mark Webber struck 1:04 later to give Merrimack a 2-1 lead.
Harmatuk knotted the score 1:08 into the second quarter with an unassisted tally. Off the ensuing face-off, junior defensive midfielder/face-off specialist Corey Bulken (Baldwinsville, N.Y./C.W. Baker) passed off to junior defensive midfielder Jikado Hanna (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton/Bridgton Academy), who fired in his 10th goal of the year and fourth of the tournament at the 13:45 mark. Northeast-10 Freshman of the Year Corey Lunney evened the score at three apiece just 24 seconds later on an extra-man goal off a pass from Bryan MacPhie. Le Moyne regained the lead 10 seconds later as Alexander converted a pass from Bulken. After 5:14 of scoreless action, MacPhie scored his first of three goals on the afternoon to tie the game. The score remained tied over the final 7:57 of the half.
MacPhie put the Warriors up 6-4 just over four minutes into the third quarter with a pair of unassisted goals in a span of 24 seconds. Melaugh increased the Merrimack lead to three goals by scoring off a feed from MacPhie with 9:37 remaining in the third. Venditti pulled the Dolphins back within two with his first goal of the game at the 5:27 mark. After Jordan Tiger scored for the Warriors to make the score 8-5, Bulken scored off the ensuing face-off to close out the scoring in the third quarter.
Tiger, Michael Balbuena and McAdam scored over the opening 3:08 of the fourth quarter to give Merrimack its largest lead of the game at 11-6. Balbuena registered the assist on Tiger's goal, while Melaugh picked up the assist on Balbuena's extra-man tally. After six and one-half minutes of scoreless action, a Merrimack turnover led to Le Moyne's rally.
Spinale, the Northeast-10 Conference goalkeeper of the year two of the last three years, made 12 saves in net for the Warriors. Krupka turned away a career-high 10 shots on the afternoon for the Dolphins.
Le Moyne (14-1), which lost by one goal in the conference championship for the second time in the last three years (Bryant, 5-4, 2008), will now await word on its NCAA fate. The NCAA will announce the tournament pairings on Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. on NCAA.com.
