EMMITSBURG, Md.—The Hobart College lacrosse team built a 14-8 lead through three quarters and held off a late charge by Sacred Heart University for a 14-13 win in the Northeast Conference Tournament semifinals. The second-seeded Statesmen advance to the NEC Championship game for the fourth time in six seasons in the league. Hobart will face Robert Morris University in the title game Saturday, May 4. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Mount St. Mary's Waldron Family Stadium.
Senior
Matthew Pedicine had another monster effort on faceoffs, winning 22-of-31 while scooping up a game-high 17 ground balls and handing out an assist. He became the first Statesman with 600 career faceoff wins (606) and the first with more than 1,000 faceoffs taken (1,015). Junior attackman
Eric Holden led the offense with five points on four goals and an assist. He raised his season total to 64 points, becoming the first Division I Statesmen to have a 60-point season. First-year midfielder
Derrek Madonna enjoyed a four-point game, scoring twice and adding a pair of assist. Sophomore
Ryan Archer posted three points on a goal and two assists. In all, nine Statesmen recorded at least one goal.
On the defensive end of the field,
Sam Lucchesi earned his ninth win of the season with nine saves, one shy of the Hobart Division I era season record for wins. Senior defenseman
Franklin Marquet had a pair of caused turnovers and a ground ball in support of Lucchesi.
Hobart improved to 11-4, the most wins in a season in the program's Division I era. The Statesmen dominated the battle for ground balls 44-25 and on special teams, scored a pair of extra-man goals on six opportunities and added a man-down goal.
Sacred Heart's offense came from three main sources. Max Tuttle had a team-high five points on three goals and two assists. Logan Liljeberg scored a team-high four goals and Joe Saggese logged two goals and two assists. Defenseman Joseph Cipoletti had a game-high five caused turnovers and picked up four ground balls.
The Pioneers' starting goalie Brooks Dutton stopped only three of the 10 shots he faced in just over 17 minutes of work before he was lifted for Colton King, who made 13 saves in relief.
SHU (9-6) had a 47-46 edge in shots and went 1-for-6 with the extra man.
Sacred Heart jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game, but Archer and Madonna netted back-to-back goals 40 seconds apart to even the score. Liljeberg pushed the Pioneers back in front with his second tally, but Holden, sophomore
Tommy Mott and first-year
Quentin Birch ripped off three in a row, to send Hobart into the second quarter with a 5-3 lead. Birch's goal was the first of his collegiate career.
The Statesmen repeated their 5-3 scoring edge in the second quarter to build a 10-6 halftime lead. Five different Hobart players scored in the second quarter, including extra-man goals by junior
Justin Scott and Holden. Knox and Holden each scored twice in the third quarter. Holden now has 43 goals on the season, two shy of Alex Love's 2013 total, which serves as the standard for Division I Statesmen. Knox's 35th goal of the season came as Hobart was killing off a slashing penalty. It gave the Statesmen a 14-7 lead.
Saggese started SHU's ill-fated comeback with the final goal of the third quarter. It remained a 14-8 game as the game clock ticked under seven minutes. Tuttle gave the No. 3 seed a boost with back-to-back goals to trim Hobart's lead to four with just over five minutes to go. Saggese, Drew Edwards and Liljeberg scored in under two minutes to make it a one-goal game with 1:51 remaining.
Pedicine won the ensuing faceoff and Hobart was able to run out the clock.
It was Hobart's fourth one-goal game in its past five contests. The Statesmen, who beat Sacred Heart 10-9 back in March, improved to 3-2 in one-goal games this year.
Another one-goal game could be on the horizon. Fourth-seeded Robert Morris (8-7) is coming off a 13-12 overtime win. The Colonials beat Hobart during the regular season 16-15 in overtime. In fact, each of the last three and four of the past five Hobart-RMU games have been one-goal affairs.
