Trask's Triple-Overtime Tally Lifts #3 Men's Lacrosse to NE-10 Final; Warriors Top Adelphi, 14-13
Links: Box Score // Highlights // Game-Winning Goal Video
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – After Adelphi rallied with two goals in the final 67 seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime, sophomore Sam Ventresca (Woburn, Mass.) made six of his career-high 21 saves over the course of three sudden-death periods before junior Jack Trask (Colorado Springs, Colo.) finally won it in walk-off fashion with 38 seconds left in the third overtime stanza, lifting the third-ranked and second-seeded Merrimack College men's lacrosse team back to the Northeast-10 Conference Championship Final thanks to a 14-13 win over the eighth-ranked and third-seeded Panthers in the league tournament's semifinal round on Friday at Martone-Mejail Field.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 14, Adelphi 13 (F/3OT)
Records: #3 Merrimack (14-1) | #8 Adelphi (12-5)
Location: Martone-Mejail Field | North Andover, Mass.
2016 NE-10 Men's Lacrosse Championship Schedule
Tuesday, May 3
First Round
Game 1: #4 Southern New Hampshire 15, #5 Pace 13
Game 2: #3 Adelphi 13, #6 Saint Anselm 7
Friday, May 6
Semifinals
Game 3: #1 Le Moyne 15, Southern New Hampshire 3
Game 4: #2 Merrimack 14, #3 Adelphi 13 (F/3OT)
Sunday, May 8
Championship Final (at Highest Remaining Seed)
Game 5: #2 Merrimack at #1 Le Moyne (1 p.m.)
How It Happened
Meeting for the third straight season in the NE-10 Championship – including the second straight year in the semifinal round – Merrimack and Adelphi -- the two-time defending league champions -- squared off Friday looking to advance to the league championship.
The Panthers took an early two-goal lead out of the gate, building a 3-1 lead through the first half of the opening period. Back-to-back tallies from freshman Brendan Donnelly (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) and Michael O'Connell (Sudbury, Mass.) drew the Warriors even, but Adelphi scored two of the next three goals to carry a 5-4 advantage into the first intermission.
After both sides combined for nine goals in the first quarter, things settled down a bit in the second; Merrimack took control of the game defensively, as Ventresca stopped three of the four shots that reached him while three different Warriors – Trask, freshman Seamus Ford (Walpole, Mass.) and senior Ryan Poirier (Warwick, R.I.) – found the twine to give the Warriors a slim 7-6 lead at halftime.
Merrimack played some of its best lacrosse in the third quarter, which saw the hosts outscore Adelphi by a 6-3 margin, as the Navy and Gold built their largest lead of the afternoon – a six-goal edge (13-7) – thanks to a spurt of five uninterrupted markers, but the Panthers scored twice in a 45-second span late in the period to teeter the momentum back in their favor.
Trailing by four goals with just over seven minutes left, Adelphi chipped away with back-to-back tallies and made it a two-score game with five minutes left. Ventresca, meanwhile, was doing all he could for the hosts, stopping six shots in the final 15 minutes, but Adelphi's John McGrath was also excellent on the other end, stopping all three shots he saw in the fourth quarter.
That set the stage for the Panthers' dramatic comeback, as NE-10 Player of the Year Salvatore Tuttle capitalized on a Merrimack turnover and drew the visitors to within one with 1:07 left. Then, after Adelphi won the following faceoff, Tuttle kept the visitors' season alive thanks to the equalizer with only 10 seconds left, sending the game to overtime.
With 60 minutes in the books, both teams returned to the turf knowing the next goal would send that team to Syracuse on Sunday. Both offenses, however, were greeted by sensational performances by both opposing goalkeepers, who yielded nothing through the first – and then second – overtime period.
Merrimack's best chance to end it came after Ventresca made a stop on Tuttle with 1:06 left in the first overtime, leading to a chance in transition that ultimately ended with O'Connell ringing one off the iron to send it to a second sudden-death period.
Adelphi won the first faceoff of the second overtime, but Tuttle was turned away twice by Ventresca; McGrath, however, made one of his four overtime saves late in that session, to give the Panthers a chance to win it, but a turnover caused by sophomore James Bassett (Getzville, N.Y.) kept Adelphi off the board and sent the game to a third and final overtime period.
Once again, the Panthers won the first faceoff, but Ventresca made a huge save early in the period and then bailed out his offense after a turnover gave Tuttle another chance to win it for the Panthers.
Finally, the Warriors would cause a turnover that gave them possession for the final two minutes of the third overtime, and the game would end after Donnelly found Trask near the top of the circle, and the latter fired a low laser that beat McGrath and sent the home side into hysterics.
Notes and Numbers
- Merrimack was playing in its first triple-overtime game since a 6-5 win in triple overtime against Bentley back on April 22, 2009
- The Warriors advance to the league title game for the 12th time in school history – second only to Le Moyne's 16 appearances – and will look for their third league tournament championship and first since the 2010 season
- Ventresca's 21 stops were two more than his previous career-high of 19, while Donnelly's four points (2g, 2a) were a new single-game scoring high for the freshman
- Trask and O'Connell led the Warriors with three goals apiece, as the former tied a career-high in goal-scoring
- Meanwhile, Merrimack's lead scorer, junior Max Allen (West Caldwell, N.J.), was held without a goal but still factored into the offense heavily thanks to his career-high four assists
- Senior captain and NE-10 Defensive Player of the Year Scott Corcoran (Haverhill, Mass.) was a force on all ends and caused a game-high three turnovers and, more importantly, gathered a game-best 13 ground balls
- On the faceoff X, sophomore Blake Boudreau (Amherst, N.H.) once again got the better of counterpart John English – who ranked second nationally in faceoff win percentage coming into the day – by finishing 19-of-32 (59.4%) and, more importantly, held English to just seven wins in 20 tries
- EMO: Merrimack (1-4) // ADE (2-5)
- SOG: Merrimack – 34 // ADE – 34
- Ground Balls: Merrimack – 52 // ADE – 44
- Clears: Merrimack (26-for-26) // ADE (21-for-25)
Up Next
Merrimack will look to avenge its only regular season loss this spring – an 11-6 setback at Le Moyne back on March 19 in Syracuse – when it makes the westward trek to take on the Dolphins with the 2016 NE-10 Championship on the line. Game time from Ted Grant Field for the league championship is set for Sunday (May 8) at 1 p.m.
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