Posted: Mar 06, 2012
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BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott men’s lacrosse team held a lead entering the fourth quarter against Eastern Connecticut on Tuesday night, but four-goal advantage dwindled down to just one before the Gulls were able to defeat the Warriors 10-9 in their 2012 home opener.
Endicott junior attacker Brian Estes (Derry, N.H.) scored what was the game-winner just 38 seconds into the fourth quarter as his goal with an assist to Chris O’Brien (Hampden, Mass.) gave the Blue and Green their 10th and final goal of the game. With a 10-5 lead after Estes’ third goal of the season, Endicott allowed four straight tallies by the visitors before the end of regulation.
The Gulls earned their first win of the season, improving to 1-1 in 2012, and will next take on \#7 Stevens on Saturday, March 10th at 1:00 pm at Endicott Stadium. With back-to-back losses, Eastern Connecticut is now 1-2 after winning their season opener. The Warriors will host Babson next Tuesday at 4:00 pm.
Endicott raced out to a 3-0 lead early in the first quarter thanks in part to a goal and an assist by junior attacker Connor McCormack (Norwalk, Conn.). McCormack, who beat the goalie twice in this game, kicked off the scoring just 1:06 into the game with an unassisted goal before assisting on the second of two man-up goals to make it 3-0 Endicott. The first man-up goal was Jon Thanas’ (Cumberland, R.I.) fourth goal of the season with an assist to Connor Prescott (Norwalk, Conn.) followed by Peter Erickson’s (Yarmouth, Maine) tally assisted by McCormack.
Eastern Connecticut scored twice in-a-row on goals by Jeremy Cogliano (Bedford, Mass.) and Mike Devine (Cheshire, Conn.). Devine’s goal was the first of three goals for the sophomore who now leads the Warriors 14 on the season. During Eastern Connecticut’s four-goal run to end the game, Devine scored two of those goals to threaten the Endicott lead.
Estes finished off the first quarter with the first of his two goals with just 48 ticks remaining.
Harry Holden (Duxbury, Mass.) scored the first of three goals for Endicott at the start of the second quarter with an assist to Thanas. After Warriors senior Michael Sullinger (Brookfield, Conn.) scored man-up at 7:26, the Gulls saw Brendan Eppley (Darien, Conn.) and Prescott go back-to-back to give Endicott a 7-3 halftime advantage.
The two teams exchanged goals in the third quarter as Endicott maintained a four-goal lead going into the fourth. Sam Ozycz (Cheshire, Conn.), who was dominated on face-offs by winning 16-of-22 attempts with nine groundballs, took just three seconds after a face-off to score his first goal of the season in the quarter.
Estes pushed Endicott ahead by five goals (10-5) at the 14:22 mark of the fourth quarter before Eastern Connecticut attempted their comeback. Two goals by Devine and one by Tyler Fresen (Newington, Conn.) were even strength and Trevor Morrissette’s (Bedford, N.H.) tally with 54 seconds remaining on a man-up opportunity capped off the scoring for the Warriors as Endicott won 10-9.
With fifteen penalties in this game, there were plenty of extra-man opportunities. Eastern Connecticut was 4-of-5 while Endicott was 3-of-8 in extra-man situations. Both teams were effective in causing turnovers as Anthony Martignetti (Winchester, Mass.), Kyle Burke (Haverhill, Mass.), Breck Merritt (Weston, Mass.) and Ryan Sutherland (Sudbury, Mass.) all tallied two each. Warriors defender Chris Brown (Cohasset, Mass.) led all players with three caused turnovers.
