MERRIMACK RALLIES TO DEFEAT BULLDOGS 14-13 IN OVERTIME
Northeast-10 Conference Men's Lacrosse

    SMITHFIELD, RI - The #9 ranked Merrimack Warriors visited Bulldog Stadium to face off with the #8 ranked Bryant Bulldogs for a Northeast-10 Conference Battle. Behind a second half surge, the Warriors battled back from a five goal deficit and won the game in overtime 14-13. Merrimack improves their overall record to 6-3 while they push their unbeaten record in conference play to 5-0. The Bulldogs drop to 7-4 overall and are now 5-2 in the Northeast-10.

     The Bryant offense came out of the gate strong scoring the first three goals of the game in the first five minutes. At the end of the first quarter, the Bulldogs held a 5-1 lead and were in control. The second quarter was back and forth as both teams would exchange multiple goals, but the Bulldogs would have a 10-5 edge going into halftime.

      Merrimack came out of the locker room on fire and started the third quarter with five unanswered goals to tie the score at 10-10. Bryan Kaufmann (Putnam Valley, NY) scored the final goal of the third to give the Bulldogs a one goal lead heading into the fourth. Kaufmann finished with team high three goals.

     The Warriors battled back again and took their first lead of the game 13-12 with four minutes remaining on a goal from Thomas Fennel. Bryant had one last chance with under 20 seconds to play when freshman Matt McKeefrey (Melville, NY) scored on a diving shot across the front of the net to send the game into overtime.

     Each team would have a possession in the overtime session and the game ended on a behind the back shot from Chris Elia going across the right side of the goal. Elia finished with six goals and two assists to lead Merrimack to the victory.

     Bryant will travel to Bentley on Tuesday for a Northeast-10 Conference game at 7 p.m.

Merrimack(6-3, 5-0 NE-10) vs. Bryant (7-4, 5-2 NE-10)

Date: Apr 15, 2005  Location: Smithfield, RI                              

SCORE BY PERIOD                1  2      3   4   ot       Tot

Merrimack............               1   4      5     3    1     - 14

Bryant..............                   5   5      1     2    0    - 13

Goals:

MER: Chris Elia 6, Greg Rogowski 3, Thomas Fennel 2, Kyle Beaudoin 2, Dennis Rugg 1

Bryant: Bryan Kaufmann 4, Craig Buckhout 4, Matt McKeefrey 3, Bryan Molk 2, Adam Smith 2, Steve Coppinger 1.

Assists:

MER:   Greg Rogowski 3, Chris Elia 2, Dennis Rugg 1

Bryant:   Matt McKeefrey 3, Kevin Hoagland 2, Steve Coppinger 1, Corey Crosbie 1, Bryan Molk 1

Saves: 

MER: Eric Tompkins  (61:41 minutes, 23 shots-10 saves, 13 GA)
BRY: Michael Kennedy (30:00, 8-3, 5) , Brad Burkhardt  (31:41, 15-6, 9).