Bulldogs fall short in fourth-quarter comeback, drop 14-12 decision to Brown Tuesday at home

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University men's lacrosse team outscored in-state rival Brown, 6-1, in the fourth quarter but couldn't make up an eight-goal deficit, falling in the Ocean State Cup and regular-season finale, 14-12, inside the Conaty Indoor Athletic Center.

The Bulldogs (8-7) outshot the Bears (8-5), 17-3, in the final quarter, and saw junior attack Cam Ziegler (Carlsbad, Calif.) and junior midfielder Kyle Cornell (Darien, Conn.) lead the way on offense with four goals and five assists, respectively. Senior Tucker James (Essex Fells, N.J.) also chipped in a hat trick while classmate Tom Forsberg (Huntington, N.Y.) and junior Tom Kennedy (Farmingdale, N.Y.) each added two goals and an assist.

Rookie attack Jack Kniffin was stellar for Brown, scoring four goals of his own while adding an assist. In total, 10 different Bears got on the board, while frosh goalie Phil Goss made 12 saves, including four key stops in the fourth quarter to keep the Bulldog offense from completing the late comeback.

The Bulldogs got out in front first when a fake handoff by Cornell kept Goss looking the wrong direction, as Forsberg deposited the ball into an open right side of the net just three minutes into the game. But the visitors would quickly take over a 3-1 edge and upped that advantage to 5-2 midway through the second frame.

Kennedy and Ziegler would score back-to-back to close the deficit to just one, but the Bulldogs couldn't hold off the crafty Brown offense in the final seconds, as the Bears found two more scores in the final 13 ticks to take a 7-4 lead into halftime.

"Those goals were on us," said Bryant head coach Mike Pressler. "Those were two soft plays – one on the zone defense, one when a pole didn't make the play on the faceoff – and we were really upset. It should have been a one-goal deficit heading into the third, and that was on us."

But it was all Brown in the third, with a Brett Baker (Ridgefield, Conn.) goal at the 11:55 mark serving as the only interruption to six Bear tallies, with Michael Panepinto's goal with 14 seconds left vaulting the visitors to their largest lead of the game, 13-5.

But the Bulldogs would start to stage their comeback just before the third quarter's final buzzer, with Ziegler taking a feed from Cornell and sneaking it past Goss to cut the margin to 13-6 entering the final 15 minutes.

Forsberg would open the fourth with an unassisted score 59 seconds in before James took over, netting a natural hat trick over four minutes to close that gap to 13-10 with 8:33 left in regulation.

A penalty on the Bulldogs allowed Brown to get their final goal, this one in man-up fashion, as the clock ticked below the eight-minute mark, and while the hosts would dominate play down the final stretch, the comeback would fall short in the end. Ziegler would net the final two goals of the game before the 14-12 margin went final.

"Our guys were resilient once again," said Pressler. "We cut it to two with a few minutes to go and hit the pipe twice on two separate possessions that would have tied the game.

"[Junior faceoff specialist] Kenny Massa really came alive at the faceoff X in the fourth, and that helped us," added Pressler. "We went to playing quicker on offense, and we shot the ball better. Lacrosse is a game of momentum and, in that fourth quarter, we owned all the momentum."

Massa struggled at the X in the opening stanza, but went on to split the restarts in the final three quarters, finishing the contest 13-for-27 with six ground balls. Ted Ottens went 15-for-28 with a game-high nine.

Rookie Jake Fiske (Poway, Calif.) had a stellar game defensively, forcing a game-high four caused turnovers while scooping up three ground balls. Cornell's five assists were a career high while Ziegler's four scores tied his career mark.

"Kyle Cornell is an incredible two-way, role middie," said Pressler. "It takes a keen eye as a coach to appreciate his value, and his five assists today aren't surprising to us at all. I thought another guy who let the game come to him was Cam Ziegler. He made plays when the game called for it, and he was big for us tonight."

Junior goalie James Werner (New Rochelle, N.Y.) made seven stops with three ground balls on the evening. The Bulldogs limited their turnovers to just 11, with only one in the entire second half. The home side outshot its visitors, 43-38, but was edged out in ground balls, 35-34.

Bryant will have the weekend off of competition to prepare for its next matchup, a meeting with one of the Northeast Conference's top teams at the NEC Tournament Semifinals Thursday, May 4. Time, opponent and location are still to be determined.

"We are very pleased to be in the postseason and looking forward to playing for the NEC Championship in either Moon Township, Pa., or Geneva, N.Y.," said Pressler. "We are going to heal up, rest up, regroup a little bit and focus on going on the road to win the NEC title."