Posted: Apr 03, 2010
BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott College overcame a 6-5 fourth quarter deficit by exploding for four goals in the game’s final frame, as the Gulls downed visiting Western New England College, 9-8, in a pivotal The Commonwealth Coast Conference men’s lacrosse game on Saturday afternoon in Beverly, Mass. The win improves the Blue and Green to 5-4 overall and 4-1 in league play, while WNEC falls to 6-4 and 5-1 in the TCCC.
Endicott jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one quarter of play as \#Kyle Jordan\# (Falmouth, Maine) and \#Brad Lipkvich\# (Madison, Conn.) each tallied markers for the Gulls. Jordan drew first blood as he beat his man on the right side and buried a turnaround shot past the Golden Bears’ goalie Brewster Knowlton (Somers, Conn.), and Lipkvich scored his first of three on a hard bounce shot through the 5-hole to give the Gulls a two goal lead after one.
Endicott upped its lead to 3-0 as \#Jonathan Prentice\# (Chelmsford, Mass.) found himself 1-on-1 in front of the visitor’s cage and beat Knowlton with a stick-fake and a shot top-right. The Golden Bears responded by scoring three of the final four goals before the intermission, including back-to-back tallies from Joe O’Keefe (Branford, Conn.).
Both netminders were impressive in the first 30 minutes of play as Endicott’s \#Eric Hagarty\# (Sudbury, Mass.) made eight stops in the first two quarters while Knowlton stopped six.
In the third, the Golden Bears came roaring out the break with consecutive goals by Patrick White (Milton, Mass.) to give WNEC its first lead of the day, 5-4. Endicott knotted the game at 5-all as Kyle Jordan swept from behind the cage, turned the corner and stuck a bounce shot into the back of the goal. Tim Santye (Skillman, N.J.) returned the lead to the visitor’s sideline with just 1:38 left in the quarter as he gathered a bounce pass from Andrew Mariani (East Brunswick, N.J.) and stuck a sidearm crank shot under the crossbar to send the game into the fourth quarter with WNEC leading, 6-5.
The Gulls made a quick statement that the final quarter would belong to them as the Blue and Green scored twice in the opening minute of the fourth. \#Brad Lipkvich\# got the rally started just 10 seconds into frame as he scored on a 15-yard bounce shot on the man-advantage. \#Jonathan Prentice\# then scored consecutive goals, the first on an overhand shot top-shelf from 12 yards and the second on a nifty underhand flip shot off a feed from \#Chris Cotter\# (Fairfield, Conn.).
The Golden Bears countered with a pair of goals of their own, both coming from Patrick White with 7:27 and 4:16 remaining, respectfully, to tie the game at 8-all.
After a strong defensive series from the Gulls, Endicott struck for the game-winner with 3:17 left on the clock. Freshman attackman \#Brian Estes\# (Derry, N.H.) found \#Jack Curtis\# (Chelmsford, Mass.) in front of the WNEC cage, and the junior buried a quick-stick under the crossbar to give the hosts a 9-8 lead.
\#Eric Hagarty\# made a short-side save in the game’s closing minute, while junior defenseman \#Robert Crossett\# (Katonah, N.Y.) won a race to the end line off a Patrick White shot with just 38-seconds left to help the Gulls secure the win.
Western New England held a 43-39 shots advantage with the Golden Bears taking 29 attempts in the first half. Endicott won 12-of-20 face-offs, and held a slight 39-38 edge in groundballs.
\#Brad Lipkvich\# and \#Jonathan Prentice\# each had three goals apiece for the Gulls in the win. Kyle Jordan added a pair of goals while \#Eric Hagarty\# turned in 10 saves.
WNEC was led by a game-high four goals from Patrick White. Joe O’Keefe and Tim Santye each had two goals and one helper in the losing effort. Brewster Knowlton made 13 saves, including six in the third quarter.
Endicott returns to action on Wednesday, April 7th when the Gulls host the University of New England Nor’easters at 4:00 p.m. Western New England looks to rebound on the same day when the Golden Bears host Nichols College for a 7:00 p.m. tilt.
