DANBURY, Conn. - Junior goalie
Kyle Wood (Hyde Park, N.Y.) stopped nearly everything and the
Western Connecticut State University offense was nearly
unstoppable. A great combination on Saturday afternoon as the
Colonials captured the Little East Conference Men's Lacrosse
Championship with a convincing 18-7 victory over Plymouth State
University at WestConn Athletic Complex before 500 fans.
With the LEC crown comes an automatic berth into the NCAA Division
III National Championships that begin on Wednesday, May 7.
PSU, which had won five straight games and seven of its last
eight, will have to settle for a likely ECAC New England Tournament
berth when the field is announced Monday.
Senior midfielder Dennis Skarda (Danbury, Conn.), who had three
goals and four assists against the Panthers, was named the
Tournament's Most Outstanding Player. It was his goal on
Thursday afternoon, in the closing seconds, that sent the game into
overtime against Keene State College. The Colonials went on
to defeat the Owls, 14-13, on A. J. Barbieri's maker 2:19 into the
extra time to send them to today's title match.
The Colonials edged Plymouth State, 9-7, back on March 29 at The
WAC. Since then, they have won nine of 12 games and ran their
winning streak to four games today.
"We are a much different team than we were the last time we played
Plymouth State," said Skarda. "Everything has come together
for us over the past four or five games. We knew we would be
tough to beat today and it was a team effort across the board."
On Saturday, the contest appeared to be just as tightly matched
through the first 15 minutes of play. WestConn jumped out to
a 2-0 lead following a goal from Adam Lanehart
(Redding, Conn.) at 10:36. Plymouth State rallied right back
and evened the score at 2-2 when Matt Johansmeyer
(Shelburne Falls, Mass.) registered his eighth goal of the season.
As the first quarter wound down, Skarda connected with Lanehart and
the Colonials took a 4-2 lead into the second stanza. That
assist gave Skarda 200 points for his career, but he was far from
done on the day. The Danbury High School graduate went on to
score three goals of his own and assist on three others before the
final buzzer sounded.
WestConn, 13-6, pulled away from the Panthers during the second
quarter, outscoring the visitors, 7-1 during the period for an 11-3
lead at intermission. During the quarter, Tom
Begley (East Islip, N.Y.) scored three goals and was one
of four Colonials' players to have at least three goals.
Plymouth State came out of the locker room after intermission and
drew within seven goals, 11-4 in the first 13 seconds, but WestConn
would not allow it to get any closer, scoring three unanswered
goals over the next 10 minutes. Skarda netted his 13th and
14th goals during that stretch, but the Colonials weren't ready to
celebrate, yet. It wasn't until they went into the final
stanza with a 14-5 lead before they felt comfortable.
Lanehart continued his blistering goal-scoring pace with a
game-high four goals on Saturday. He goes into the NCAA
Tournament ranked in the Top 25 nationally with 56 goals.
"After coming off Thursday's win over Keene State and putting up 14
goals against them, we were fired up today," stated Lanehart.
Lanehart had a lot of praise for Skarda and Woods after the game.
"It's been a pleasure to play with Dennis the past two years, I'm
going to miss him next year," added the Joel Barlow graduate.
"He seems to know where I am on the field at all times.
When Kyle is on, we are on, and today, he and the defense
were fantastic," added Lanehart.
Wood made 13 saves on the afternoon, the bulk of those coming in
the first 30 minutes and almost single-handedly kept the potent
Plymouth State offense at bay.
The Panthers' top two scorers, senior Adam Krinsky
(Concord, N.H.) and sophomore Brian
Giroux (Wolfeboro Falls, N.H.) , who had 57 goals between
them coming into Saturday, combined for two goals in the title
game.
"Our philosophy today was to be aggressive defensively and get
ahead of Plymouth," said Wood. "We were that and then some
today."
Since its loss to Keene State, 14-5, back on April 12, WestConn has
only one loss and the offense has put up an average of more than 13
goals and given up fewer than seven a game.
Plymouth State, which has played 16 of its 18 games on the road
this season, was coming off a monumental upset in the LEC
semifinals as well, upsetting top-seed Eastern Connecticut State
University, 11-10 in double overtime on Thursday.
"We have been on a hot streak of late," stated fifth-year PSU head
coach Andrew Brauch. "Before the game, we
talked about not watching the ball, and today we got caught
watching the ball. Today, WestConn was the better team and we
did not bring out "A" game."
George Tsirigotis (Islip Terrace, N.Y.) also scored a hat trick for
the winners. Kirk Zachary (East Islip, N.Y.) hit the back of
the net twice while Barbieri, Vin Bevilacqua (Branford, Conn) and
John McGrath (Wantagh, N.Y.) closed out the goal scoring for the
Colonials.
Woods counterpart, freshman Billy Morgan
(Winchester, Mass.) was pelted with shots all afternoon as the
Colonials unloaded 53 times. Morgan made eight saves before
yielding to Kevin Hayes (Beverly, Mass.) for the
final 11 minutes of play. Hayes did not have to make a stop
as WestConn took only two shots during his stay.
Sophomore Steve Engel (South Windsor, Conn.) , who
scored the overtime game-winner in PSU's big semifinal upset win at
Eastern Conn, led the Panthers attack with two goals. Five
other players tallied one goal apiece.
It was the first championship of any kind for the rather
young WestConn lacrosse program, which began playing at the
intercollegiate level in 2004. The Colonials will find out
their opponent on Sunday night when the NCAA has its Selection Show
from its headquarters in Indianapolis.
(Courtesy of Western Connecticut Sports
Information)
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