LEXINGTON, Va. – The No. 6 Washington and Lee men's lacrosse team surrendered a late, fourth-quarter goal before another score 1:15 into overtime to fall by a final of 14-13 to ODAC rival Lynchburg on Saturday.
The Generals (6-3, 1-1 ODAC) had gained possession in the final 30 seconds of regulation with a 13-12 lead, but a turnover with 25 seconds remaining gave Lynchburg (6-3, 1-1 ODAC) the ball back. With just under seven seconds left, Riley Mitchell received a pass from Jake Rust for the equalizer to send the game to overtime.
Just 75 seconds into the extra period, Rust assisted Mitchell again to end the game.
W&L faced its largest deficit of 11-6 after a Lynchburg goal came at the 9:31 mark of the third quarter. Sophomore
Hillis Burns (Louisville, Ky. / St. Xavier) then helped the Generals flip the switch with a goal at the 4:16 mark, which spurred a 6-0 run to take their first lead of the game with just under eight minutes to play. The six goals during the run were scored by five different players, with senior
Boots Lackey (Alexandria, Va. / The Heights School) providing two, including the go-ahead goal from first-year
Elliot Cohen (Stamford, Conn. / Taft School) at 7:58.
The Hornets re-tied the game at the 6:04 mark, and the contest remained knotted until 41 seconds were left in regulation when Burns scored to give the Generals their 13-12 advantage.
Lynchburg scored the first two goals of the game inside the first four minutes, but the Generals responded with three of the game's next four tallies to tie the game, 3-3. With just two seconds left in the first quarter, Riley Hastings scored for Lynchburg, which was the first of five straight goals to give the Hornets an 8-3 lead. Both teams traded three goals apiece from the end of the second quarter to the early third, leaving the game at 11-6 ahead of W&L's run.
Cohen tallied a W&L-high four points on one goal and three assists, while Burns and Lackey each scored three goals. It marked the first multi-assist game for Cohen's rookie campaign, Burns' fifth hat trick of the season and a career-high goal total for Lackey. Other top offensive performances included two points each from seniors
Hudson Pokorny (Darien, Conn. / Darien) (two assists) and
Adam Lamberti (Bel Air, Md. / McDonogh) (one goal, one assist) and junior
Alex Brown (Norwalk, Conn. / Taft School) (two goals).
Defensively, the Generals notched 15 caused turnovers to tie their season high. Leading the way was junior
Jed Heald (Manchester, N.H. / Phillips Academy Andover (Mass.)) and senior
Harris Hubbard (Madison, Miss. / Highland Park (Texas)) with three each. Heald added two ground balls, while Hubbard picked up three. Junior
Leif Smith (Virginia Beach, Va. / Norfolk Academy) and sophomore
Brian Barringer (Sudbury, Mass. / Lincoln Sudbury Regional) also caused two turnovers apiece, with Barringer collecting three ground balls. In goal, first-year
Ryan Boyd (Chatham, N.J. / Chatham) stopped nine shots across all 61:15 of game time.
On face-offs, both teams were evenly matched, with W&L pulling out the slight 16-of-31 advantage. Junior
Will Bou (Chevy Chase, Md. / Landon) went 10-of-18 and picked up a team-high five ground balls, while senior
Matt Gallagher (Lynchburg, Va. / E.C. Glass) tallied a 6-for-11 performance.
The Hornets were led on offense by a seven-goal outing from Mitchell, who scored three times and dished out four assists. Finn Schmidt and Spencer Vandenberg both totaled three points on three goals. Michael Kraus took all but two face-offs for Lynchburg, and won 14-of-29 and gained a game-high seven ground balls.
Chris Darminio came in close behind Kraus with six ground balls, and Cole Nestor finished the day with three. Five different players combined for the team's five caused turnovers. Tyler Hadley played the duration of the game and made 22 saves on 35 shots on goal.
W&L held a final 57-38 margin in total shots, including a 20-7 edge in the third quarter. The Generals also committed just seven turnovers, while forcing the Hornets into 21.
The Generals will return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Hampden-Sydney for a 4:00 pm opening face-off.
