YORK, PA – The York College men's
lacrosse team captured a thrilling 10-8 senior day victory over
visiting Capital Athletic Conference foe Mary Washington Saturday
afternoon at York's Kinsley Field. The green and white
improves to 7-6 on the season and 3-4 in Capital Athletic
Conference play while the Eagles fall to 5-6 overall at 2-4 in the
league.
The Spartans combined a six-goal explosion in the third quarter
with clutch defending and goalkeeping throughout the second half to
secure the win. After a lackluster first half performance that
resulted in a 4-1 halftime score in favor of the visitors, the
Spartans came out firing in the second half as Steve Roy
(Feasterville, Pa./Archbishop Wood) cut the Eagle
advantage to two just 47 seconds into the frame. Ryan
McNicholas (Fallston, Md./Fallston) then cut the lead to
one at 4-3 at the 11:14 mark. Josh Gamble (Easton,
Md./Easton) evened the score less than a minute later on
an assist from Ryan Schab (West Islip, N.Y./West
Islip).
A tally from Mary Washington's Scott Fletcher at 9:54 halted
the Spartan run and gave the visitors the lead at 5-4. Merely 42
seconds later, York's Gamble would tie the score once again
with his second tally of the day. The green and white would finish
out the quarter with a pair of late goals from McNicholas including
one with only 25 seconds left in the stanza. At the end of 45
minutes of play the Spartans found themselves up 7-5.
The Spartans would increase their advantage to 8-5 on
Gamble's third score of the day only 45 seconds into the
final quarter. Mary Washington answered with two straight scores to
cut the York advantage to one at 8-7 with 10:28 remaining.
The Spartans were then forced to thwart numerous Eagle attempts to
even the score, as time slowly ticked off the endline scoreboard at
the far end of Kinsley Field. After seven minutes of bated breath,
the Spartans gained a bit of breathing room when Kyle
Henninger (Millers, Md./Hereford) notched his second goal
of the day with 3:03 to play, pushing the score to 9-7 Spartans.
York's guests simply refused to go away and brought the score
to 9-8 on a man-down score by Charlie White with 1:55 left in the
contest.
After a frantic two minutes, Gamble finally put the game away for
the Spartans on a point-blank score with merely seven seconds to go
in the game.
For the contest, the Spartans led their guests 35-25 in total
shots while picking up 52 ground balls to the Eagles' 42.
York secured 12-of-22 face-offs including 6-of-8 in the third
quarter.
Gamble was the Spartans leading scorer notching four goals on the
day. McNicholas and Roy also tallied multiple times scoring three
and two respectively. Mike LaRoque (Arnold,
Md./DeMatha) was brilliant in face-offs for the York side
as he won 9-of-15 chances to go along with a team-high nine ground
balls. Senior long-stick midfielder Mike Stokes (Ellicott
City, Md./Mt. Hebron) frustrated the Eagles throughout the
game with his emotional and inspired play, scooping up eight ground
balls along the way. Defenseman Dan Wood (Montauk,
N.Y./East Hampton) also performed exceptionally well
causing six turnovers and collecting three ground balls.
For the Eagles, Daniel Coats, Brent Fisk, and White each tallied
twice while Sean Brown also added one score. Ryan Motyka collected
a game-high ten ground balls and was 10-of-20 on face-off attempts.
Geoff Prin caused four turnovers and gathered three ground
balls.
Matt Keeler (Morton, Pa./Ridley) was magnificent
between the pipes for the Spartan side as he picks up the win in
net. Keeler made eight saves including several brilliant stops to
hold the Eagles at bay. Fittingly, senior goalkeeper Joe
Kenworthy (York, Pa./Severna Park) made the game's
final save.
Ryan Kleman posted an exceptionally strong performance in net for
Mary Washington, making eleven saves in his 60 minutes of work.
The Spartans hit the road for their final regular season game
before CAC playoffs commence. York travels to Susquehanna next
Wednesday for the 3:00 pm non-conference tilt.
BOX SCORE
Josh Gamble photo courtesy of Scott Guise
