PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Trailing by a goal heading into the fourth quarter, Mount Ida College faced the prospect of having to play in the quarterfinal round of the upcoming Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's lacrosse tournament. However, the Mustangs buried a pair of goals in the final frame and held off host Johnson & Wales for a 6-5 victory that clinched them the #2 seed in the conference and a bye into next Thursday's semifinals.
Winners of nine straight now, Mount Ida (10-4, 7-1 GNAC) will host a semifinal game on Thursday, April 23rd at 3:30 pm at Alumni Field.
Senior Shaun Royce (S. Windsor, Conn.) scored twice, and his unassisted tally tied the game with 10:36 remaining in regulation and junior Mike Markevich (Westminster, Mass.) netted the game winner at 8:33 to cap a two-goal and one assist day for himself.
The Wildcats were led by freshman Max Stone (Burlington, Conn.) who connected for two markers while classmate Eric Russo (West Grove, Pa.) tallied a goal and an assist on the afternoon.
Mount Ida grabbed an early lead when Markevich fed Austin Philips (Haverhill, Mass.) two minutes into the contest. JWU answered with Stone's first of the day at the 9:22 mark before Markevich tossed in his first with 4:23 left in the quarter to give his squad the 2-1 lead after one.
Philips increased the Ida lead to 3-1 with 4:11 left in the first half with a man-up goal before sophomore TJ Consiglio (New Fairfield, Conn.) brought the Wildcat deficit to just one, 3-2, heading into the half. The Mustangs outshot the hosts 22-7 after the opening half and won the faceoff battle 6-1 heading into the break.
JWU rattled off three straight goals to open the seconds half including sophomore Brian Hillenbrand's (Portsmouth, R.I.) eleventh of the season off a feed from Russo. Rookie Sam Sears (Baltimore, Md.) picked up the assist on the next two goals for the Wildcats as he fed Russo at 6:02 for the go-ahead goal and Stone at 4:47 to take a two goal advantage.
Royce found the back of the net with four minutes left in the third quarter to bring the Mustangs within one to close out the stanza.
In the final quarter, Royce tied the game with his second marker of the day before Markevich played the hero with a man-up goal that would send Mount Ida on to the 6-5 win.
Sophomore Tyler McElreath (Upton, Mass.) made eight saves in the win for Mount Ida, while freshman JC Guido (Miller Place, N.Y.) stopped 18 shots, including 13 in the first half, in the setback.
The Wildcats fall to 7-7 overall on the year and 5-3 in conference play, good enough to earn the #3 seed and a home date with Norwich at 7:00 pm in the opening round of the conference tournament Tuesday evening. Mount Ida will await the winner of that game as their opponent for a trip to the GNAC finals.