Chris Palladino, Gettysburg
Box Score
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The fifth-ranked Gettysburg College men's lacrosse team survived a scare in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament, holding off a furious late-game rally from Lynchburg College to earn an 8-7 victory at a misty Shirk Field at Musselman Stadium Wednesday afternoon.
With the win, their 13th in a row, the Bullets (15-2) move on to the second round and will face the winner of tonight's first-round game between 15th-ranked Cabrini College and No. 10 Stevenson University on Saturday at a time to be announced.
Lynchburg (12-9) trailed 8-1 with 5:08 left in the third quarter before embarking on a game-ending 6-0 run. The Hornets nearly tied the game but a final shot that went into the net came after the horn had sounded.
The game was eerily similar to the last meeting between the two teams in the postseason, when Lynchburg rallied from a 9-2 deficit to win 11-9 in the semifinals of the national tournament last season.
Senior Jameson Smith (Glen Ridge, N.J./Glen Ridge) and junior Ivan Morris (Houston, Texas/Houston Christian) scored two goals apiece for the Bullets while seniors Mike Distler(Lutherville, Md./Loyola Blakefield) and Paul Werner (Westfield, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) notched one goal and two assists apiece.
Senior Jake Adoni (Fort Washington, Pa./Germantown Academy) finished with nine saves to lead the defense while sophomores Cullen Minion (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City) and Brendan Hathaway (Darien, Conn./Darien) registered three caused turnovers apiece. Senior Geoff Davis (Jefferson, Md./McDonogh School) and junior Chris Palladino (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) each picked up four ground balls.
Evan Lombardo posted three goals and one assist for the Hornets while Austin Stewart also scored three times. Chris Hawley finished with seven saves while Bobby Distler won 16 of 18 face-offs.
Lombardo made it a one-goal game when he scored a man-up goal with 1:08 remaining. Lynchburg won the ensuing face-off but the Bullets gained possession following a missed shot. After a Gettysburg clear, the hosts nearly ran out the rest of the clock, and the ball was thrown high into the air and toward the goal in the closing seconds. Hawley came down with the ball and launched a length-of the-field pass to Murphy, whose straightaway shot from 10 yards out was waived off.
Gettysburg never trailed after scoring the first three goals of the game. Smith converted just over three minutes into the contest before freshman Blake Gray (Reisterstown, Md./McDonogh School) followed up with 6:42 on the clock to make it a 2-0 game at the end of the opening quarter.
Mike Distler pushed the Bullets' lead to 3-0 when he got into the scoring act with 11:24 left in the half. Austin Stewart put Lynchburg on the scoreboard with 7:39 remaining, but Smith and Werner answered with back-to-back tallies to make it a 5-1 game heading into the locker room.
The Bullets scored the first three goals of the second half to open up their seven-goal lead, as Morris sandwiched a pair of goals around a tally from freshman Tommy Heller(Livingston, N.J./Livingston), setting up the Hornets' late run.
Stewart scored a man-up goal with 2:34 left in the third quarter, and Lynchburg trailed 8-2 heading into the final stanza. The Hornets outscored the Bullets 5-0 in the fourth quarter, receiving three goals from Lombardo and one apiece from Stewart and Colin McGuire.
Lynchburg outshot the Bullets 37-29 for the game while Gettysburg held a 25-24 edge in ground balls.