Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Virginia
Virginia Stages Late Rally to Deal Bison Lax Heartbreaking 13-12 OT Setback
5/15/2011 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
May 15, 2011
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The seventh-ranked Bucknell men's lacrosse team was just minutes away from its first NCAA Tournament win in program history, but seventh-seeded Virginia scored twice in the final 2:32 of regulation and then Matt White won it 1:27 into overtime to lift the host Cavaliers to a stunning 13-12 verdict Sunday at Klockner Stadium.
Despite a two-week layoff and then the start of the game being delayed by about 70 minutes due to a thunderstorm, Bucknell was in top form for most of the day. The Bison outscored Virginia 4-1 in both the first and third quarters, led 10-6 late in the third and 12-10 on Peter Burke's goal with 4:00 to play, but behind All-America attackman Steele Stanwick, the Cavaliers rallied late.
Chris Bocklet scored five goals and Stanwick had three goals and five assists to lead Virginia. Charlie Streep and Todd Heritage recorded hat tricks for the Bison, while Ryan Klipstein and Billy Eisenreich both had two goals and two assists.
Despite the gut-wrenching loss, Bucknell can look back on a record season. The Patriot League champion Bison finished 14-3, setting a new program record for wins. This was Bucknell's second NCAA Tournament appearance, with the other a first-round 12-7 loss to Notre Dame in 2001.
Virginia, ranked ninth in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and 10th in the USILA Coaches Poll, improved to 10-5 on the season and will face second-seeded Cornell next Saturday in Hempstead, N.Y.
The Cavaliers scored the final two goals of the first half to make it 6-6 at intermission, but the Bison stormed out of the locker room with four straight goals to start the third quarter. Streep, fresh off his Patriot League Tournament MVP performance, scored the first three of the period. He scored twice coming from behind the goal and another on a rocket from the left side after a long offensive possession.
The Bison dominated time of possession in the third quarter, and they struck again at the 2:49 mark when Klipstein held off two defenders to the right of the crease and slipped a pass in front to Heritage for an easy one-timer.
Virginia pulled within 10-8 on goals by Stanwick and White, but Heritage scored a big one at 8:04 of the fourth after corralling a ground ball on a loose-ball scramble in front of the cage and firing into an open net. Bocklet scored two in a row to make it 11-10, but then with exactly four minutes remaining, freshman Peter Burke fired a precise shot into the upper right corner of the cage to make it 12-10.
Then things got crazy. Jake Clarke, who had a terrific day on faceoffs while breaking the Bucknell single-season ground ball record, won the draw and Virginia was forced to double team down by two. After a timeout, the Bison twice missed looks at an empty net, and the second time Virginia had the shot backed up.
The Cavaliers cleared, but then Bucknell goalie Kyle Feeney intercepted a pass at the other end. Virginia left the net empty on a 10-man ride, and Bison defenseman John Collett fired a length-of-field shot. The attempt went high and the Bison had it backed up on the end line, but the officials ruled it to be a pass, and possession went back to Virginia on Bucknell's only failed clear of the day.
This time the Cavaliers capitalized when Stanwick scored unassisted to make it 12-11 with 2:32 to play. Clarke again won the draw and the Bison got two more looks, but they were off target and Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman snared the second one at the side of the crease. Stanwick then scored in transition to tie the game at 12 with 1:46 left.
Even worse, Clarke, who was on a roll at the faceoff X, was penalized after the shot. Virginia won that draw, but the Bison killed off the one-minute penalty and got a huge check and steal from Collett in the final seconds to force overtime.
Clarke cleanly won the overtime faceoff, and the Bison set up for a winning shot. Eisenreich took the ball up top but lost his footing and had it taken away by Blake Riley. Virginia cleared, and not long into its first OT possession White came from behind the cage and slipped in the winning shot.
Bucknell finished with a whopping 47-30 shot advantage, went 18-for-19 on clears, won 15 of 29 faceoffs and committed only eight turnovers in the game.
Despite conceding the game's first goal on a broken play 1:34 into the game, Bucknell got off to the start it was looking for. The Bison answered with four straight goals, including a three-goal flurry in just 22 seconds.
After Kyle Feeney robbed Stanwick on the doorstep, Klipstein got Bucknell on the board at the 10:12 mark on a centering feed from Eisenreich. John Scally nabbed the ground ball on the ensuing faceoff and dished back to Clarke, who found Klipstein in the slot for a one-timer and a 2-1 lead.
Virginia won the next faceoff going back toward its own goal, but Scally pressured the Cavaliers' pole into a turnover, leading to a 3-on-none break for the Bison. Heritage grabbed the loose ball and took it all the way to the goal for a 3-1 lead at the 9:50 mark.
Not quite five minutes later, Nick Gantsoudes made it 4-1 with a hard low-to-low shot that skipped past Ghitelman.
Bucknell won the draw to start the second quarter, but another controversial call helped switch the momentum. A split second before a Bison player was about to pass the ball to a teammate outside the box, an official signaled a stall warning, and Bucknell lost possession. Virginia capitalized when Matt Kuglar scored from 12 yards out off a Stanwick feed.
That started a 3-0 run for the Cavaliers, who tied it at 4-all on Colin Briggs' tally with 6:52 left in the half.
Bucknell regained the lead when Eisenreich scored two neat goals in 67-second span. First, he dodged a defender from the left flank and beat the goalie 1-on-1. Then he took a Klipstein pass from X and fired it home from an impossible angle on the left side.
Two goals by Bocklet evened things up at 6-all before halftime. After Bocklet's first goal made it 6-5, Bucknell's Burke rang a shot off the left post, and Bocklet scored off a Chris LaPierre pass on the clear.
Bucknell played for the final shot of the half, but again the iron was unkind as Streep unleashed a tracer with 0:03 remaining that hit the crossbar and bounced down behind Ghitelman, but somehow did not cross the line. That was one of four pipes hit by the Bison in the game.
After a slow start, Clarke finished 11-for-21 on faceoffs and scooped nine ground balls. He finished the season with 105 ground balls, making him the first Bucknell player ever to go over the century mark. Clarke also held the previous mark of 98, and actually he will graduate with the top three single-season ground-ball totals in program history as well as the career marks for faceoff wins (422) and ground balls (297).
The Bison, who had their eight-game winning streak come to an end, entered the game with their highest national ranking in program history. This was only the third time all season they conceded 10 or more goals in a game, and they had won the other two.
Led by captains, Clarke, Collett and Klipstein, Bucknell's senior class will graduate with 41 wins, most in program history.
