Exeter 7 Governor's Academy 8
Exeter, NH , Monday, April 14th - Two of the top lacrosse teams in Eastern New England met today, and as expected it was another nail-biter that went down to the last seconds of the game. In the last minute of play, Exeter had two excellent shot opportunities followed by a Governor's penalty that gave Exeter the last 20 seconds in a man-up advantage. Exeter just could not find the goal to tie the game before it ended. The last minute of possession was a microcosm for much of the rest of the offensive part of a game that featured excellent dodging and ball movement, but the inability to put the ball in the net. With two offensive starters injured Saturday and unable to play in this game, the offense adjusted as well as possible with no time to practice the new personnel groupings. The defense and Goalie Tyler Page were excellent all day long against a powerful offense that featured a few future DI players and had been averaging 13 goals per game. Unfortunately, PEA was victimized on FOUR different occasions by "trash" goals that were scored when a Governor player picked up a loose ball near the goal that had been just checked from a stick or came off a rebound save. These are similar to offensive rebound baskets in basketball and the 8th and decisive goal was scored in just this manner after a defensive player for Exeter tried to roll one to the back of the cage for the goalie to clamp.
Exeter struck first at the 20 second mark when Eric Slingerland found Ted McKenna on a transition goal. GA came back to tie shortly afterwards and then went ahead 2-1 before Jon Stidd scored the first of his two goals to tie it up half way through the 1st quarter. Jon played his best lacrosse of the season with superb defense, ground balls, and two transition goals. The quarter ended 4-2 in GA's favor, but Slingerland brought Exeter to within one shortly after the 2nd quarter started. GA and Exeter exchanged goals after that, and the score at half was 5-4. The game seesawed the rest of the way with Exeter scoring to tie the game only to be followed by GA scoring to go up by one again. When GA changed the pattern and went up by two with 5 minutes to play, things looked tough. However, Matt Rawson soloed in at the 4-minute mark to make it an 8-7 game with plenty of time left. GA held the ball and maintained possession until Matt Callahan forced his man out of bounds at the 1:30 mark of the 4th quarter. Exeter cleared the ball, called time out, and had more than a minute to try and tie the game. Despite great opportunities, it just did not happen.
In addition to Jon Stidd, Tom Clayton played excellent short stick defense and faceoff wing play. Defenders Sam Gardner, Sam Johnson, Eddie Williams, and Matt Callahan played superbly. They held the GA attackmen to a total of 2 goals and 1 assist, and Sam Gardner shut down UVA signee Blake Riley to NO points, and Eddie Williams and Matt Callahan took turns on North Carolina bound middie Jeff Muscatello and held him to one assist. In addition to the two goals by Jon Stidd, multiple point scorers included Matt Rawson (2g, 1a) and Eric Slingerland (1g, 2a). Eric Eberhart continued his excellent play from Saturday with another fine face-off performance.
Click here to see game pics
|
Team |
1st quarter |
2nd quarter |
3rd quarter |
4th quarter |
Game Total |
|
Exeter |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
|
Governor's |
3 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
8 |
Game Ball Winners -
Game Scoring - Goals - Laster, Rawson (2), McKenna, Slingerland, Stidd (2)
Assists - Rawson, Slingerland (2), T. Page
Faceoffs Won/ Faceoff Attempted-Eberhart 12/19
Saves/Shots on Goal - Page 7/15