Bulldogs clinch fifth-straight NEC Tournament berth with 8-6 win at Mount St. Mary's Saturday

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Junior Shane Morrell (Glen Mills, Pa.) notched the game-winning tally with eight minutes left in the third and classmate Collins Gantz (Denver, Colo.) added an insurance goal with 19 ticks left to play as the Bryant University men's lacrosse team clinched its fifth-straight Northeast Conference Tournament berth with an 8-6 win over Mount St. Mary's on the road Saturday afternoon.

Morrell, senior Brian Schlansker (Glenville, N.Y.) and sophomore Tucker James (Essex Fells, N.J.) each found the back of the net twice to lead the Bulldogs (6-8, 4-2 NEC) in the contest, while Gantz and rookie attack Cam Ziegler (Carlsbad, Calif.) also scored in the team's regular-season conference finale.

Mark Hojnoski led the Mount (4-9, 1-4) with a pair of tallies himself, while Christian Durham brought the hosts back within a single score, 7-6, with 7:51 left in the fourth to keep the home side alive until the final seconds.

The Bulldogs were strong down the middle once again in the victory, with senior faceoff specialist Kevin Massa (Huntington, N.Y.) going 12-for-17 at the X with a game-high seven ground balls. Junior goalie Gunnar Waldt (Freeland, Md.) put up 12 saves for his sixth win of the season, adding three ground balls and one caused turnover.

Bryant also saw its best game of the season with the man-advantage, going 3-for-3 on extra-man opportunities, including a 2-for-2 mark in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs shut the Mount out of the first quarter while scoring four goals of their own, getting two scores from James to bookend back-to-back Schlansker tallies. James's game-opening goal came with 8:16 to play in the first, and Bryant would score the next three inside the final 2:17 of the stanza, including James's second tally with one tick left on the clock.

But in the second, the Mount responded with two of its own while keeping the Black and Gold off the board for a 4-2 margin at the halftime break.

A slashing call on Brent Tsang less than a minute into the third would afford the Bulldogs their second man-up goal of the day – this one from Ziegler with an assist from Morrell – and the teams would alternate tallies for the remainder of the stanza to maintain a two-goal Bryant advantage, 7-5, entering the final 15 minutes.

With 7:51 still to play in the fourth quarter, though, the Mount would close that gap to just one, 7-6, when Durham took a pass from Justin Gosnell and deposited it in the back of the net for his second goal of the season.

The teams would battle from there, but a penalty on Nick Firman with 1:23 to go allowed the Bulldogs to run down the clock, and Gantz that would cement the victory in unassisted fashion with 19 seconds left in the contest for the 8-6 final score.

Despite the win, the Bulldogs were outshot by their opponents, 36-30, including a 12-4 margin in the fourth frame. Bryant won the edge in the ground ball game, 30-26, but continued to struggle with possession, committing 21 turnovers to Mount's 12. The Black and Gold forced just five caused turnovers while Mount St. Mary's finished the game with eight. Matt Vierheller made nine stops for the home side in the loss.

The Bulldogs wrap up Northeast Conference regular-season action with the victory, but have one more non-league contest still to play. Bryant will host intrastate rival Brown Tuesday night (7:00 p.m.) in the deciding contest of the 2015 Ocean State Cup.