LAST SECOND GOAL LIFTS MUSTANGS OVER BEAVERS 8-7

The Mount Ida College men's lacrosse team captured their biggest victory of the season thus far against non-conference Babson College winning 8-7 in dramatic fashion this past Wednesday afternoon at MacDowell Field.  Mustang sophomore Nate Prince (West Gardiner, ME/Gardiner Area) scored the game winning goal with 14 seconds remaining to give the visitors the victory.  Mount Ida improves to 5-6 overall while the Beavers drop to 3-7. 

The Mustangs took the early lead in the first quarter scoring the only two goals in the period from senior Brett Conley (Fairfield, CT/Fairfield Warde) and sophomore Matthew Savage (Peabody, MA/Peabody). In the second, senior E.J. Peterson (Framingham, MA) put the Beavers on the board scoring an unassisted goal just 46 seconds in. Mount Ida's Alex Champagne (East Greenwich, RI/East Greenwich) answered back with a goal just under two minutes later and teammate Paul Battipaglia (Clinton, CT/Morgan) followed to give the Mustangs the 4-1 lead at the half.

In the third period,  Babson senior Matt Enright (Bristol, RI) scored an unassisted goal at the 13:02 mark and Peterson scored another three minutes later off a pass from teammate Andrew Packer (Hudson, OH) for an extra man goal to bring the Beavers to within one, 3-4. Savage, who notched a hat trick for the game, tallied another goal for Mount Ida to give them to two score lead going into the final period.

The Beavers started the fourth quarter with three unanswered goals. Babson's Peterson struck again at the 14:18 mark with a goal from teammate Jake Konaxis (Beverly, MA).  Sophomore Armand Wilson (Fairfield, CT) scored an unassisted goal four minutes later and first-year Paul Grip (Shrewsbury, MA) tacked on his team's third straight goal off a pass from Enright to give Babson their first lead of the game, 6-5 with 8:52 left in the game.

Babson still led by one when the two team then traded goals but Mount Ida's Derek O'Reilly (East Setauket, NY/Ward Melville) was able to tie the game, 7-7 with 1:29 left to play. Prince gave Mount Ida the win when he picked up a rebounded shot and scored with just 14 seconds remaining in the game. The Beavers were unable to get a shot off in the remaining seconds and the Mustangs walked off with the 8-7 win.

Savage had three goals for Mount Ida while Champagne, Prince, O'Reilly, Conley, and Battipaglia each chipped in one goal in the win. Sophomore Frank Razio (Clinton, CT/Morgan) had a game high eight groundballs and won 10 face-offs. First-year goalkeeper James McAllister (Smithfield, RI/LaSalle Academy) went the distance in net for the Mustangs making twelve saves in the victory.

The Mustangs will host senior day this coming Saturday against North Atlantic Conference (NAC) foe Maine Maritime Academy starting at 1:00 p.m.