Saturday, April 20, 2013 (Newton, Massachusetts)- The Mount Ida College men's lacrosse team defeated Lasell College Saturday afternoon in a thrilling triple overtime victory by the score of 9-8. The Mustangs move to 9-7 overall and 8-1 in conference play. The loss drops the visiting Lasers to 8-7 overall and 7-2 in the GNAC.
Lasell tallied the first goal of the game at the ten minute mark when Aaron Laporte (Gorham, ME) connected on a pass from teammate Dylan Fernandes (Billerica, MA) to put the Lasers up 1-0. The second goal would come with 1:45 left in the first quarter when Casey Sullivan (Waterford, CT) finished a cross crease pass from teammate Andy Puopolo (Duxbury, MA) to put the game at 2-0 in favor of Lasell. The Lasers spent little time finding the back of the net for their third goal of the contest from Puopolo to bring the score to 3-0.
Mount Ida tallied a late pair of goals from Nick Yacuzzi (Worcester, MA/St. John's-Shrewsbury) and Michael Trocchi (Danvers, MA/Danvers) to make the score 2-5 heading into the half.
The Mustangs battled back under the solid play of Michael Markevich (Westminster, MA/Oakmont) who notched a goal off a crisp pass from teammate Zach Rosen (East Greenwich, RI/St. Andrews School) to put the score at 5-3 in favor of the Lasers. Markevich rattled off two straight goals on assists from teammates Yacuzzi and Michael Trocchi (Danvers, MA/Danvers) to tie the game at 5-5.
Both squads would trade goals throughout the fourth quarter and highlight a physical game that put a plethora of penalty minutes on the board. The Mustangs held a one goal lead with three minutes to go in the fourth quarter when Sullivan was able to sneak a shot past Mount Ida goaltender Craig Bray (New Canaan, CT/Vermont Academy) to tie the game at 8-8 and send the game to overtime.
The Mustangs capitalized after two overtimes when Rosen drove high pipe and dished to an open JT Hoyt (Westfield, MA/Westfield) to seal the game winning goal and the victory for the Mustangs, 9-8.
The Lasers were led by the strong goal keeping of David Whalen (Longmeadow, MA) who finished the day with 16 saves. Bray had a standout performance in net for Mount Ida by making 15 saves.
The victory solidifies the Mustangs as the number two seed in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) tournament, while the loss puts the Lasers right behind in third. Mount Ida will host Rivier University on Tuesday afternoon on Alumni Field with game time yet to be determined.