FAIRFIELD, Conn.—The Hobart College lacrosse team led Sacred Heart University 7-3 early in the third quarter, but the Pioneers got a tremendous performance from its goalie and just enough offense to slip past the Statesmen 9-8 in overtime this afternoon. Ryan Stout scored the game winner from about 7 yards out, burying a feed from Morgan O'Reilly with 2:04 remaining in the extra session.
Ryan Archer shared game-high honors with four points, all on assists, for the Statesmen. He raised his career assists total to 80, passing Nate Hill '05 (79) to move into third place on Hobart's Division I era list. Archer upped his career points total to 150, tying Eric Holden '20 for fourth place.
Chad Bach logged a career-high three goals for the Statesmen while
John Herlihy scored twice.
Derrek Madonna,
Tommy Mott and
Sam Ward accounted for the other three Hobart tallies.
Adam Shea dominated the faceoff X, winning 16-of-21 while grabbing a game-high 10 ground balls. Goalie
Kevin Holtby made 10 saves for the Statesmen.
O'Reilly, who came into the game as SHU's points leader, was shutout in the opening 30 minutes, but finished the game four points on two goals and two assists. Carson Spooner logged a pair of goals, including the game-tying tally with 9:32 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Pioneers' goalie Nicky LaBlanca finished the game with 14 saves, including six in the first quarter and five in the third quarter. His third quarter performance was particularly important to the comeback. LaBlanca saved Hobart's first shot of the second half, but Mott scored his goal at the 13:13 mark, giving Hobart a 7-3 lead. LaBlanca went on to make five more stops as the Pioneers chipped away at the Statesmen lead.
Four minutes after Mott's goal, SHU (3-3, 1-0) stopped Hobart's five-goal run which began at the end of the second quarter. Jake Garb scored unassisted halting a 20-minute scoring drought by the home team. Less than a minute later, Bach appeared to complete his hat trick while restoring the Statesmen's four-goal lead, but the tally was wiped out by the officiating crew. Moments earlier, Herlihy took a shot from the right side of the cage while taking a check to the head by Jack Ramsay that knocked off Herlihy's helmet. A hit that was flagged as an illegal bidy check. The attackman immediately retrieved his helmet and was moving it toward his head when Bach's shot hit the back of the net. Herlihy raised both arms in celebration with the helmet still in hand. The officials determined he played without his equipment and waved off the goal.
The ruling proved costly as Hobart (2-3, 0-1) was unable to cash in on the one-minute man advantage. The Statesmen went 2-for-6 with the man advantage in the game. O'Reilly scored near the three minute mark and set up the Pioneers' sixth goal with 1:25 left in the third quarter. The Statesmen carried a thin 7-6 lead into the fourth quarter thanks in part to Holtby's save on a Sacred Heart shot just ahead of the buzzer.
Bach completed his hat trick in the first minute of the fourth quarter, assisted by Archer, to give Hobart a two-goal edge. O'Reilly and Spooner scored in a five minute span to tie the game at eight, but the defenses controlled the remainder of regulation.
Bach took Hobart's final shot which was saved by LaBlanca with under 30 left and Garb fired wide of the net just before time expired on the fourth quarter.
In overtime, Shea picked up his 16th faceoff win and 10th ground ball to give the Statesmen possession. Unfortunately, they were stripped of the ball by Johnny Morgan and Connor Sullivan picked up the ground ball and started SHU's clear which led to Stout's game winner.
Hobart got off to a slow start, scoring just twice in the first 24 minutes, but the Statesmen found a groove over the final six minutes of the first half. Madonna scored to tie the game at 3 at 5:55. Less than a minute later, Herlihy scored man-up, off an assist from Ward, to give Hobart its first lead of the game. About two minutes later, Ward scored an extra-man goal of his own to make it 5-3. Herlihy capped the first half scoring on a jump shot into the lower left corner of the cage for a three-goal lead at the break.
It's the fourth straight time and sixth time in 10 all-time meetings that the Hobart-Sacred Heart game has been decided by two goals or less. It's the first time in eight NEC openers that the Statesmen have lost.
Hobart will return to Geneva for its first home game since Feb. 19, when the Statesmen host Bryant (3-4, 1-0) at noon on Saturday, March 26.
