High Point Edges Mercer, 7-6, For Title Game Appearance
RICHMOND, Va. – Third-seeded High Point edged second-seeded Mercer with a late goal in the semifinals of the SoCon Men’s Lacrosse Championship at Robins Stadium, on the campus of Richmond. The Panthers advance to the inaugural SoCon Championship game to meet top-seeded Richmond on Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN3.
High Point (9-6) was led by Michael LeClair and T Moyer with two goals apiece. Austin Geisler made 10 saves in the victory while allowing just six goals for a .625 save percentage.
Mercer (5-8) got two goals from Bryan Gibson and one goal and one assist each from both Tim Geran and Chris Baxa. The Bears outshot the Panthers, 36-23, and won 9-of-15 face-offs in game but struggled to find the net.
High Point scored on a man-up opportunity to start the fourth quarter on a goal by SoCon Offensive Player of the Year Dan Lomas. Chris Rahill later evened the game at six with a goal at the 12:57 mark.
The teams went scoreless for nearly nine minutes in the final frame until LeClair scored his second goal of the game to put the Panthers in front for good, 7-6.
The two teams went to overtime in their regular season matchup and finished the season tied 18-18 over two games on the year.
Mercer got on the board first, less than two minutes in to the game, with a goal by Geran to give his team the early advantage. High Point answered three minutes later with a goal by SoCon All-Freshman honoree Moyer.
Gibson netted a goal for the Bears at the 5:20 mark in period one to push the lead back to 2-1. High Point’s Sean Harrison would even it up with 1:24 left in the opening frame and conclude the scoring for the first quarter.
Mercer controlled the ball for much of the opening quarter, taking 12 shots to HPU’s 5 with a 5-3 advantage in shots on goal and 4-1 mark in face-offs.
The second quarter was all High Point, as the Panthers outscored the Bears 3-1 in the period to take a 5-3 halftime lead. LeClair and Matt Thistle scored the first two goals of the period as part of a 3-0 High Point run. Mercer’s Gibson scored his second goal of the game to cut it back to one but Moyer pushed the lead back to two with his second goal with 46 seconds to go in the half.
High Point outshot Mercer, 12-5, in the second quarter to put both teams at 17 shots apiece with eight shots on goal each at the break.
Mercer came out of the break and closed the gap with goals from Chris Baxa and Ben LaSane in third quarter, tying the game at 5-5.
Richmond Holds Off Furman, 8-7, to Advance to Title Game
RICHMOND, Va. – The top-seeded Richmond Spiders survived a late rally against the fourth-seeded Furman Paladins to earn the 8-7 victory in the opening game of the SoCon Men’s Lacrosse Championship at Robins Stadium, on the campus of Richmond. The Spiders (11-4) advanced to the inaugural SoCon Championship game on Saturday.
Richmond was led by J.P. Forester with three goals while Mickey Hofmeister and Alex Hatem added two goals each. Brendan Hynes had a strong game defensively, holding Furman’s leading scorer without a goal and tallying eight ground balls and two caused turnovers. The Spiders won 16-of-19 face-offs in the game, thanks to faceoff specialist Peter Moran.
Furman (4-9) got a hat trick from Robbie Betchley in the loss with four other Paladins adding a single goal in the game. The Paladins’ goalie, Reilly McDermott, recorded a career-high 17 saves while allowing just eight goals. Furman held the Spiders to exactly eight goals in both games this season, both their lowest totals against a SoCon foe this season.
Furman, trailing 8-4 with 11:43 remaining in the game, scored the final three goals of the game to cut the lead to just one with 1:40 to go. The Paladins were able take three shots in the final 1:40 but Benny Pugh made saves on two of the three shots to clinch the win for the Spiders.
In the early going, Richmond got on the board quick with a goal by Forester just 18 seconds in to the game. Furman would not take long to answer, though, as Betchley netted a goal two minutes later in the first quarter.
Defenses would shine the rest of the first quarter with neither team scoring again in the opening period. The Spiders outshot the Paladins, 16-11, in the first period with Furman making six saves against Richmond’s four.
Richmond would break the game’s scoring drought with a goal by Hatem at 11:13 mark of the second quarter. Betchley answered the goal again, scoring at the 10:32 mark to even up the game at 2-2. Eric Haehl put the Spiders back in front, scoring at the 9:41 mark to make it a 3-2 Richmond advantage.
The Spiders would extend the lead with a pair of late first-half goals. Hofmeister netted a goal with 36 seconds remaining in the half and Forester scored his second of the game with 27 seconds to go in the half to give them a 5-2 halftime lead.
Furman would close the gap in the third quarter with a 2-1 advantage in the period. Hofmeister scored his goal of the game at the 11:51 mark to put the Spiders in front 6-2. Betchley’s third goal of the game for Furman would come just 10 seconds later to cut the lead back to three.
The defenses would again hold for much of the quarter until Furman’s Matt Geran put a shot in the back of the net with 22 seconds to go in the frame, cutting the margin to two heading to the fourth quarter.
Richmond started to pull away in the final period, scoring two goals in the first five minutes of the quarter off the sticks of Hatem and Forester. Furman answered with two goals in the middle five minutes, cutting the lead to 8-6 with goals from Patrick DiMento and Patrick Reilly. Scott Primeau would score the final goal of the game to cut the lead to one for the Paladins but they were unable to get any closer.
The Spiders will square off against the winner of the Mercer-High Point game at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the league’s first title game.