LEXINGTON, Va. – Junior
James Haley scored the game-winning goal with 1:36 left in overtime to lift the No. 9/10 Washington and Lee men's lacrosse team to a 12-11 comeback win over Randolph-Macon on Saturday.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Trailing by as many as four goals with just over a minute left before halftime, W&L (10-3, 6-0 ODAC) first-year
Jack Dalton fed sophomore
James Cardillo for a goal with 1:09 left, followed by another quick score by Dalton just eight seconds later.
Senior
Hillis Burns, who assisted Dalton's first-half ending goal, then scored a minute into the third quarter to get the Generals back within a goal. Randolph-Macon's Avery Tankersley had a response with a goal four minutes later to get the Yellow Jackets' lead back to two, but Burns scored once more at the 5:54 mark to make it a one-goal game yet again.
Junior
Colin Beatty managed to tie the game at 10-10 with 2:29 left in the third, before senior
Joey Allen found the back of the net on a man-up goal with 12:30 left in regulation to give the Generals their first lead since the first quarter. From then until 27 seconds were left in regulation, the W&L defense came up big with a couple of blocked shots and two saves from sophomore goalie
Nick De Cain to hang onto their lead.
However, De Cain's second save in that time was not controlled by the W&L defensive unit, and RMC's (8-5, 4-2 ODAC) Matthew Sutty picked up the loose ball and fired a quick shot past De Cain to tie things up.
Overtime began with both teams turning the ball over once, before the Yellow Jackets got the first shot off in the extra period. Grant Sobel's attempt with 1:51 left was stopped by De Cain, who quickly pushed the ball back upfield on the fastbreak. The Generals quickly cleared, with a Burns ground ball keeping the possession alive. The ball ended up in the stick of Beatty, who found Haley open on the left post for the game-winning goal.
TOP PERFORMERS:
Burns led the W&L offense with six points on four goals and two assists, plus two ground balls, while Dalton followed with four points at one goal and three assists. Haley ended the day with three points, all goals, with Allen at a goal and two assists. Senior
Jack Elliott, Cardillo and Beatty all had one goal and one assist. Sophomore
Tyler Spano took all but two of W&L's face-offs for the game and won 21-of-25 with 12 ground balls.
Six different W&L players caused one turnover each, with junior
Chris Datz leading the bunch with three ground balls. De Cain entered the game with 8:21 left in the second quarter, and he proceeded to make seven saves on 12 shots on goal over the remaining 40:45 of action to earn the win.
Tankersley was the top Yellow Jacket scorer at four goals, with Mike Allen at three points on a goal and two assists and Harrington at two goals. Cooper Hauser caused a game-high three turnovers, while Allen added two caused turnovers and five ground balls to his line. RMC goalie Jack Twomey, who had an assist on the team's third goal of the game, played all 62:24 on Saturday and made 15 saves.
NOTEWORTHY POINTS:
Saturday's win marked the Generals' 21st straight ODAC regular season win, and it was the first game during the streak to end in overtime.
Another six points for Burns helped him move past Colin Dougherty '00 (224) and Ande Jenkins '97 (226) on the program's all-time points list. Burns now sits in fourth place with 229 points (140g, 89a), five points behind Don Carroll '76 (234) for third.
Spano also moved up two spots on a career leaderboard, passing Tom Super '99 (480) and
Will Bou '24 (484) for the sixth-most face-off wins in program history. Spano has now won 485-of-716 (.677) face-offs in his career, and he can get up to fifth place with just five more.
TEAM STATS:
The Generals outshot the Yellow Jackets, 42-31, in total shots and 27-19 in shots on goal. The Blue and White got to 41 ground balls, compared to 24 for the visitors, while successfully clearing at a rate of 91.3 percent (21-23).
UP NEXT:
The Generals will return to action on Wednesday night when they host the University of Lynchburg at 7:00 p.m. in a rematch of the teams' 2024 NCAA Tournament second round matchup.
Nestled in the mountains of Virginia, Washington and Lee University is a proud member of NCAA Division III and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Founded in 1749, W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the United States and a top-ranked liberal arts university. With over 500 student-athletes in 24 varsity sports, the Generals have celebrated over 265 conference championships. Learn more about the Blue and White by visiting www.generalssports.com or on social media at @WLUGenerals.
