Fairfield outlasts Bryant for double OT win

BULLDOGS FORCE DOUBLE OVERTIME BUT FAIRFIELD PREVAILS, 9-8, SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Fairfield junior attackman Sam Snow scored the game-winning goal 2:22 into the second overtime period Saturday afternoon, as the host Stags came from behind to top the Bryant University men's lacrosse team, 9-8, in double overtime at Alumni Field.

The game marked the first overtime contest for either side on the young 2012 season as the Bulldogs (1-2) gave away a two-goal halftime advantage to remain winless on the road in two tries. Fairfield (2-0) keeps its record intact with the home victory, outshooting its visitors, 44-29, in the contest.

Junior transfer Cody Isdaner (Gladwyne, Pa.) recorded his first hat trick in a Bulldog uniform to pace the visitors, while Mason Poli (Downingtown, Pa.) and Peter McMahon (Wilton, Conn.) each chipped in a goal and an assist on the day. Senior goalie Jameson Love (Darien, Conn.) recorded a season-high 19 saves while facing an onslaught of shots, but couldn't keep the Stags out of the net altogether, as the hosts received a game-best four points (3 goals, 1 assist) from sophomore Eric Warden in the win.

"It was a battle," said head coach Mike Pressler. "Fairfield is a top 20 team. I knew that going in, and I told the guys to get ready for a one-goal game and get ready for a game that could possibly go into overtime. And as it turned out, both of those scenarios happened. To me, they are one of the top teams in the nation, and we could certainly feel that afterward."

The Bulldogs led by as many as three late in the second quarter, 6-3, but were outscored, 5-2, after the halftime intermission, as a slow second-half start again plagued the Black and Gold. Only this time, that slow start had more to do with penalties than offense.

Bryant returned to play after the break down a man and would give the Stags extra man opportunities twice more in the frame's first four minutes. But the Bulldog defense held strong, keeping Fairfield off the board in each of the three uneven situations, much of it thanks to the stellar play of Love between the pipes.

"This was the first game in a while where Jameson was back to being what we've come to get used to and enjoy in his three-plus years at Bryant," said Pressler. "He was on his game today, and if Jameson continues to play at this level, then we're going to be awfully tough to beat."

But with 9:35 on the clock, Drew Federico did open the third-quarter scoring to close Fairfield's gap to just one, 6-5, in unassisted fashion. Isdaner's second goal of the game two minutes later temporarily restored the Bulldogs' two-goal edge, but the Stags would respond by scoring the next three, bridging the final two periods of regulation to take their first advantage since 2-1 in the opening frame.

Isdaner would level out the score, 8-8, with 5:31 to play in regulation with an unassisted tally to cap off his hat trick performance, and the margin would hold through the final whistle to force overtime.

"It's a 7-7 game in the fourth, and then they go up, 8-7. Then Cody [Isdaner] makes a great play to make it 8-8, and then Colin Dunster -- man up with 15 seconds to go -- hits the pipe," said Pressler. "This game was a game of inches, of a play or two, a second or two. We had our chances to win down the stretch, but as I told our guys, we are a good team, and we are very close to being a great team."

In the first extra session, the teams fired just a combined three shots, and neither side could change the score before the end of the stanza, sending the game into double-overtime, where the host Stags outshot the Black and Gold, 4-1, before Snow's game winner made it past Love.

"We had a little defensive breakdown," said Pressler of Snow's goal. "They took advantage of it, and they won the game.

"The story of overtime for us was all of the chances that we had on offense," he continued. "We had the ball to start overtime, but we turned it over, didn't get a shot off. Mason Poli had two shots on the doorstep. We had our chances, so it's not like we can point the finger at anybody else but ourselves. We just didn't make the plays down the stretch."

But it was the Bulldogs who jumped out to an early lead just 16 seconds into Saturday's contest, as sophomore Dan Sipperly (Greenwich, N.Y.) took a pass from McMahon after an opening faceoff win by rookie Kevin Massa (Huntington, N.Y.) and fired it home past Fairfield netminder Charlie Cipriano (11 saves).

Bryant would be limited in shots throughout the first two quarters, but would continue to score at an impressive rate, scoring six goals in the opening 30 minutes off just 11 shots.

A Colin Dunster (Cos Cob, Conn.) tally with just under six to go in the opening stanza evened the score at 2-2, and Poli gave the Black and Gold back the lead less than three minutes later off a pass from local product Ben Sternberg (North Kingstown, R.I.). But with 27 ticks left in the frame, Stag midfielder Brent Adams wrapped up the quarter with a goal of his own for a 3-3 scoreboard knot.

The second frame was all Bryant, though, as rookie Brian Schlansker (Glenville, N.Y.) netted his first collegiate goal to open the scoring. His tally would be the only man-up goal of the game for either side as the teams combined to go 1-for-7 in extra man opportunities.

The Bulldogs would score the next two -- goals from Isdaner and McMahon -- for a 6-3 lead before Warden tacked on a last-second tally for the 6-4 halftime margin.

The Bulldogs dominated the ground game despite the loss, picking up 38 ground balls to the Stags' 27. Massa paced the game with a contest-high five and split the faceoffs with a pair of Fairfield specialists, going 10-for-20 from the X on the day. The hosts collected eight caused turnovers, including a game-high three from Drew Palmer, while six Bulldogs forced a giveaway for the visitors.

The Bulldogs return home for their next two contests, as Bryant welcomes the University of Vermont to the Bryant Turf Complex Saturday, March 3 for a 3 p.m. faceoff.