#3 Bulldogs advance to fourth-straight NEC Championship Game with 11-8 comeback win over #2 Hobart

PHILADELPHIA – The third-seeded Bryant University men's lacrosse team scored five unanswered goals, including a pair from sophomore defenseman Cody O'Donnell (Smithfield, R.I.), to complete a come-from-behind 11-8 victory over second-seeded Hobart in Thursday's Northeast Conference Semifinal, advancing to its fourth-straight NEC Championship Game.

The Bulldogs (7-9) – winners of the last three NEC Tournament titles – will take on top-seeded Saint Joseph's (11-5) Saturday at 1:00 p.m. to fight for their third-straight bid into the NCAA tournament. The Hawks topped fourth-seeded Mount St. Mary's, 10-4, in the evening's first semifinal matchup.

Bryant scored eight of the last nine goals in the contest, a run that kicked off with an jaw-dropping Tucker James (Essex Fells, N.J.) tally that saw the sophomore attack go airborne in front of the crease to catch and deposit a perfectly timed Shane Morrell (Glen Mills, Pa.) pass behind Hobart goalie Jackson Brown (4 saves) to close the Statesmen's largest lead of the game down to 7-4.

James would return the favor two minutes later, dishing off a pass to Morrell for a goal from wide right that closed out first-half scoring and sent the Bulldogs into the locker room with a 7-5 deficit at the halftime break.

James got back on the board less than 90 seconds into the third to close the gap to just a single goal and complete his fourth hat trick of the year, but Taylor Vanderbeek would respond for Hobart with 12:19 left on the third-quarter clock to restore a two-goal advantage, 8-6.

But that would be the last shot that would get past two-time NEC Defensive Player of the Year Gunnar Waldt (Freeland, Md.) (10 saves) in the contest. With 11:42 remaining in the third, sophomore midfielder Ryan Sharpe (Poway, Calif.) took a feed from rookie attack Cam Ziegler (Carlsbad, Calif.) to pull the Bulldogs back within one, 8-7, and Ziegler would take one to the cage himself with seven to go to net an unassisted tally and tie the game, 8-8, for the first time since the closing minutes of the first.

Off a big save by Waldt in the waning minutes of the third, the junior netminder fed an outlet pass to O'Donnell in the middle of the field, and the longpole took it coast-to-coast, firing a shot that beat Brown for Bryant's first lead since the 8:33 mark of the opening stanza. The tally would prove to be the game winner, but the defenseman wasn't done.

A minute-long penalty on junior Collins Gantz (Denver, Colo.) in the starting minutes of the fourth would turn into an offensive opportunity for the Black and Gold when senior defenseman Connor Dent (Havertown, Pa.) forced a turnover out of Hobart leading scorer Alex Love. The giveaway would spring Bryant into the offensive zone, where Morrell fed O'Donnell for another chance that the longpole wouldn't waste, netting the Bulldogs' second man-down tally of the season for a 10-8 advantage that would cement the victory.

Rookie midfielder Tom Kennedy (Farmingdale, N.Y.) would add an insurance tally with 5:32 to play, as the Bulldogs earned the right to defend their tournament title with the 11-8 comeback win.

Senior faceoff specialist and three-time NEC Player of the Year Kevin Massa (Huntington, N.Y.) was tremendous once again from the faceoff X to spark the Bulldogs all night long, winning 17-of-22 faceoffs, including a perfect 8-for-8 mark in the second half. Massa added a game-high 11 ground balls to his day, helping the Bulldogs dominate the category, 25-17.

Hobart – who saw a hat trick from Saylor, a pair from Cooper Stefaniak and four assists from Love – outshot the Bulldogs, 30-24, and went 1-for-2 on the man advantage.

James finished the night with a game-high five points off three goals and two assists, while Morrell dished out two helpers with a score of his own. Sharpe, Ziegler and Kennedy would all end up with a goal and an assist, while rookie midfielder Nick Hallmark (Novato, Calif.) netted the first goal of his career five minutes into the contest.

The Bulldogs now focus on top-seeded Saint Joseph's, who went undefeated in NEC regular-season action, including an 8-7 last-second stunner over the Black and Gold in Smithfield March 29. The winner of Saturday's 1:00 p.m. NEC Championship will earn an automatic bid into the 2015 NCAA tournament.

Saturday's title bout can be seen live and free-of-charge on NECFrontRow.com.