PLAYOFF BOUND: Bulldogs top MSM in 2OT

Senior Evan Roberts and the Bulldogs hand regular-season champ Mount St. Mary's first NEC loss in regular-season final, 9-8, to secure the program's first DI playoff berth

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Seventeen seconds into the second overtime, senior Evan Roberts (West Cornwall, Vt.) scored his second goal of the game and 12th of the season to break an 8-8 tie and push the Bryant University men's lacrosse team past regular-season champ Mount St. Mary's, 9-8, handing the Mountaineers their first conference loss of the year and securing the Bulldog program its first-ever Division I postseason berth Saturday in Emmitsburg, Md.

Roberts netted the game winner after getting a crucial faceoff win seconds earlier, sealing up the No. 4 seed for Bryant (8-8, 3-2 Northeast Conference) in next weekend's inaugural NEC Tournament. The Bulldogs, who finish the regular season tied with Robert Morris for third in the league standings, will meet a familiar opponent in the first round, earning a rematch with top-seeded Mount St. Mary's (7-6, 4-1) on the Mount's home turf in Friday night's semifinal.

"It means so much for our entire program to make the NEC Tournament in our first year of eligibility," said Bulldog head coach Mike Pressler. "But what makes it even better is winning your way in like we did today. And now we get the great opportunity to play Mount St. Mary's again on Friday."

But if this game is any indication of Friday's semifinal, the teams will have to endure a war to get into Sunday's NEC Championship game.

After the hosts jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, the Bulldogs spent the first two periods trying to gain an edge in a game they needed to win to control their own playoff destiny. It would take the Black and Gold until the waning minutes of the half to pull even, when Roberts took a pass from rookie Dan Sipperly (Greenwich, N.Y.) to equalize the scoreboard at 4-4 with 1:47 to go in the second frame. Sixty seconds later, frosh Colin Dunster (Cos Cob, Conn.) gave the Bulldogs their first advantage of the day, 5-4, to enter the halftime break.

The lead lasted all of 81 seconds, though, as Bryant Schmidt knotted the score at five goals apiece just 34 ticks into the third    quarter.

From there, the teams would match each other's goal-scoring efforts for the remainder of regulation. Consecutive tallies from sophomore Peter McMahon (Wilton, Conn.) and Sipperly to close out the third were canceled out by Daniel Stranix and Schmidt for a 7-7 draw with 9:19 to play in regulation. The scoring would stop for the next 7:25, but senior Gary Crowley (Scituate, Mass.) gave the visitors back a one-goal edge, 8-7, as the clock ticked into the final two minutes. And while the Black and Gold fought to hold the lead, Mount leading scorer Andrew Scalley completed his hat trick to draw even with exactly a minute to go in regulation, forcing extra time to decide the finale.

The Bulldogs controlled much of the first overtime frame, generated by a Roberts win at the faceoff X followed by an Anthony Iannello (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) ground ball. A shot by McMahon sailed wide and an ensuing turnover gave the home side back the ball with just over a minute to play.

Out of a timeout, junior netminder Jameson Love (Darien, Conn.) came up big with one of his most crucial saves of the season, turning away an Eric Ososki shot with 15 seconds left to keep the deadlock for the team's second multi-overtime battle of the 2011 campaign.

And from the starting whistle of the second extra session, Bryant dictated the flow of what little game was left, as Iannello picked up the ground ball off Roberts' win to give the Bulldogs numbers up and handing it off to Max Weisenberg (Long Beach, N.Y.), who got the ball back to Roberts for the winning shot 64:17 seconds after the opening whistle.

"That was one of the greatest ground balls of all time in my opinion," said Pressler. "Roberts scores off the broken play off the faceoff, and it was all created by that Anthony Iannello ground ball.

"That was probably the most important ground ball of our season," he added. "Anthony was certainly the star on the ground for us today."

Iannello and fellow senior Ryan Mahoney (Wading River, N.Y.) each picked up a game-high five ground balls, while Roberts went 8-of-15 from the faceoff X and registered a game-best four points off a pair of goals and matching assists. The Bulldogs also got two-goal games from McMahon (1 assist) and Crowley, while Sipperly and Weisenberg chipped in assists.

"I thought our seniors in particular, in the last regular-season game of their careers, really played like seniors," Pressler said. "Gary Crowley, Evan Roberts, Ryan Mahoney, Greg Lehane, Anthony Iannello in particular – the senior class played very well."

Sophomore Mason Poli (Downingtown, Pa.) had another big outing on defense, recording a game-high trio of caused turnovers to go along with four ground balls, while the rookies out of the midfield were also stellar, from Dunster's early goal to Alex Zomerfeld's career-high four ground balls and the first two caused turnovers of his career.

"The continued strong play of our freshman middies has been so key for us the entire year, and that was especially true today," said Pressler. "Not only Dunster, but Alex Zomerfeld as well. You could feel him all over the field, and in a great freshman year this was his biggest and his best game yet."

The teams were close in nearly every category, matching each other with 36 shots apiece (3-1 Bryant in OT) and 15 turnovers each. The visiting Bulldogs won the ground ball battle by a 37-29 margin. Love made 11 saves between the pipes for the win, while T.C. DiBartolo made 13, including seven to keep Bryant scoreless through the opening quarter.

"Jameson let a couple in early, but he settled down, we didn't get rattled, and we made it 5-4 at the half with five second-quarter goals," Pressler said. "DiBartolo is always outstanding in net and this was no exception, but Jameson was just a little bit better today."

The Bulldogs return to action Friday, May 6 when they make the program's first Division I playoff appearance in a 7 p.m. rematch with top-seeded Mount St. Mary's in the inaugural Northeast Conference Tournament in Emmitsburg, Md.