The Maritime College men's lacrosse team made history once again on Tuesday afternoon as they won a thrilling overtime game against Grove City for the college's first NCAA tournament win in the modern era.
Trailing for the majority of the game, the Privateers put together a clutch run in the fourth quarter to take a 13-11 lead with just over three minutes remaining, but the Wolverines were able to tie it up with 13 seconds left and force overtime. After losing the opening faceoff in overtime, the Privateers had a great defensive possession, which included a
Justin Weigold (Huntington, N.Y./Huntington) save and a turnover caused by
Brett Boisits (Glen Head, NY/North Shore).
Michael Petty (Port Washington, N.Y./Paul D. Schreiber) scooped up the ground ball and once the Privateers got it to their half of the field, head coach
Justin Manjares called timeout. The timeout paid off for the Privateers as
Brett Trodden (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) took his defender one-on-one and dove across the net for the game-winning goal.
"After turning the ball over to let Grove City tie the game I really wanted to make up for it and win the game in overtime," said Trodden. "Justin and our defense really stepped up to start overtime and gave us the opportunity to win it though."
The game got off to the start Maritime was hoping for as they won the first faceoff and
Matt DeMeo (Sayville, N.Y./Sayville) found a cutting
Bryan Keegan (Lake Grove, N.Y./Sachem North) for the first goal of the game just over a minute into the action. However, the Wolverines bounced right back and scored five unanswered goals to take a commanding 5-1 lead.
With less than four minutes to play in the first quarter,
Mike Leake (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) scored back-to-back goals to make it a 5-3 advantage and then DeMeo netted his first goal of the game with 12 seconds left to make it a one-goal game heading into the second period. With the momentum on their side, the Privateers turned to DeMeo and Leake to keep the offense going in the second quarter as two more goals gave them the 6-5 lead. Unfortuantely, the back-and-forth play continued and Grove City took a 9-8 lead into the locker room.
The second half didn't start the way the Privateers were hoping for as the Wolverines scored two consecutive goals to start the action. Trailing 11-8 with 10 minutes left in the third quarter, Maritime's defense buckled down and didn't allow another goal until two minutes left in the fourth quarter, which allowed the offense to re-take the lead.
DeMeo took over for the offense to close out the third quarter and start the fourth quarter by scoring four of the next five goals in the game. With six seconds remaining in the third quarter, DeMeo scooped up a loose ball in front of the net and fired it past the goalie to make it an 11-10 lead for the Wolverines.
After DeMeo tied the game two and a half minutes into the final period,
Michael Petty (Port Washington, N.Y./Paul D. Schreiber) ripped a shot past the goalie in transition to give Maritime the 12-11 advantage with just over five minutes left. About two minutes later, DeMeo scored his 7
th goal of the game to make it a two-goal lead. Unfortunately, Grove City put together a comeback in the final two minutes of play and scored a goal with 13 seconds left to force overtime.
In the overtime period, the Privateers defense made back-to-back stops to give the offense a chance to win the game. After tallying five assists during the game,
Brett Trodden (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) took over on the final play and beat his defender to score a tough goal in traffic to win the game.
Justin Weigold (Huntington, N.Y./Huntington) was stellar in goal for the Privateers by tallying 19 saves in the win. Maritime will have a quick turnaround and are set to take on the top-seeded host, Salisbury, at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow.
