April 10, 2006
BEVERLY, MA - Coming into this season, Endicott College had never beaten a team from the New England Small College Athletic Conference, but goaltender Ryan Walsh (Weymouth, MA/Weymouth) helped the Gulls score their second win over a NESCAC school and run their consecutive wins streak to eight games after beating Amherst College, 7-6, Monday night at Endicott Stadium.
The Gulls (9-3, 5-0 CCC) took a 7-3 lead into the final 15 minutes of play where the Lord Jeffs (2-5, 1-4 NESCAC) took control. Amherst scored three straight - the last coming with 7.7 seconds remaining - and nearly got the equalizer but Walsh bailed out the No. 20 ranked team in the country, turning away eight shots in the fourth to preserve the win. Walsh finished with 21 saves in the victory.
Will Ferrer Greenwich, CT/Loomis Chaffee) scored the final two goals of the game and recorded three goals in all for Amherst, which also received two goals by Derek Cherney (Chappaqua, NY/Horace Greeley) and one by Chris Hoffmann (New Canaan, CT/New Canaan).
Endicott built up a 3-1 first quarter lead on goals by freshman Eddie O'Reilly (Beverly, MA/Beverly), Josh Gilbert (Simsbury, CT/Simsbury) and Burt Fahy (Needham, MA/Needham). O'Reilly notched a hat trick to lead the Gulls, while Kevin Lally (Derry, NH/Pinkerton) added two assists to CCC-leading totals and Fahy also dished out two assists. Dan Ryan (Billerica, MA/Billerica) and Brandon Dube (Danvers, MA/Danvers) each scored once for the winners.
After Amherst goalie Matt Pietroforte (Brooklyn, NY/Poly Prep), who turned away 16 shots, and Walsh each pitched shutouts in a scoreless second quarter, each club put up two goals in the third quarter and the game went into the fourth quarter with the Gulls clinging to a 5-3 advantage.
Dube and Ryan struck quickly in the fourth to extend the cushion to 7-3, before the Lord Jeffs netted three goals over the final 8:51 to make things interesting late. Ferrer made it a one goal game, scoring from Cherney with 7.7 seconds left in the game. But EC's John Ortoloni (Billerica, MA/Billerica) won the ensuing faceoff and time expired on Amherst's comeback bid.
The Gulls will travel to fellow NESCAC Connecticut College Wednesday afternoon (4) while the Lord Jeffs visit Wesleyan Saturday afternoon (1).