Wilkes Men's Lacrosse Comeback Attempt Falls Short against UNE
EDWARDSVILLE, PA – The Wilkes University men's lacrosse team found themselves trailing 14-7 heading into the fourth quarter before rallying to cut the deficit to 14-12 with 7:12 remaining in the game. Unfortunately, the Colonels were unable to finish the job as they fell by that score to the University of New England on Wednesday afternoon at Schmidt Stadium.
The loss drops the Colonels to 3-3 overall while the Nor'easters improved to 2-3 on the season.
This one got off to a slow start as the first goal of the game came at the 5:39 mark of the first quarter from the visitors to open the scoring for the contest. After the Nor'easters added another tally at the 1:30 mark, Luke Palladino (Wantagh, NY/Wantagh) found the back of the net for the Colonels with just under a minute remaining in the opening quarter to send his team into the second trailing 2-1.
Each team would trade markers in the early seconds of the quarter as Eric Ormsby (Warwick, NY/Warwick Valley) answered a University of New England goal to cut the deficit back to one at 3-2 less than 90 seconds into the frame.
The Nor'easters would counter with four straight goals, one with the man-up, to open a 7-2 advantage at the 6:06 mark of the second quarter.
Wilkes would respond quickly as Alex Myers (Cortland, NY/Cortland) found John Wink (Glenside, PA/Abington) for a goal followed shortly by another unassisted tally from Ormsby to cut the margin to 7-4 with just over four minutes left until halftime.
In the closing minutes of the half the teams again traded goals as Nico Lorenzo (Howell, NJ/Howell) found Wink for his second score of the first half as the Colonels ended the first 30 minutes of play trailing 8-5.
The University of New England found the back of the net early in the third as they scored three times in the first three and a half minutes to push their lead to 11-5.
Wink would break the run with an unassisted marker, but the Nor'easters netted three more goals to see their lead balloon to 14-6 with 1:10 left in the quarter.
Ethan Weaver (Olney, MD/James Hubert Blake) set up Connor Daly (Oakhurst, NJ/Ocean Twp.) for his first of the game with five seconds left on the clock to send the Colonels into the final quarter down 14-7.
The navy and gold started to chip away at the deficit early in the fourth as Daly and Wink each scored unassisted goals in the first five minutes to trim the Nor'easters lead to 14-9.
A few minutes later, Wilkes scored three times in less than a minute as Weaver, Daly and Wink all beat the University of New England goalkeeper to pull the Colonels within two at 14-12 with 7:12 left in the contest.
The Nor'easters would call a timeout but the Colonels won the ensuing faceoff and got off a shot attempt that went wide before ultimately turning the ball over to the University of New England.
Wilkes would get another chance to cut the deficit to one but Wink was stopped by University of New England goalkeeper Sam MacKenzie with 4:41 remaining in the game. About a minute later, after a pair of turnovers, MacKenzie saved another Wink attempt before the visitors took a 30 second pushing penalty to give the Colonels a man-up opportunity.
This time, MacKenzie would deny Daly on the man advantage but the Nor'easters continued to turn the ball over to give the Colonels extra chances to pull within one.
With 1:50 left in the contest, MacKenzie came up with two more timely saves as he stopped Wink and Myers before the Nor'easters picked up the groundball and intentionally took a shot clock violation to give the Colonels possession back with just 15 seconds left on their way to a 14-12 victory.
Wink led the navy and gold with seven points on five goals and two assists while Daly added three markers.
Team stats were almost even across the board as Wilkes registered five more shots on goal (32-27) and committed one less turnover (27-26) while the University of New England scooped up one more groundball (50-49).
The Colonels return to action on Wednesday, March 20th when they head to Reading, Pa. to take on Alvernia at 7:00 p.m.
