Box Score
GETTYSBURG,
Pa. – Brian Pryor (Dallas, TX/St. Mark’s) collected a game-high
four points and Pat Vaughan (Cockeysville, MD/Loyola Blakefield)
made 11 saves to lead fourth-ranked Gettysburg to its ninth Centennial Conference
(CC) men’s lacrosse championship, courtesy of an 8-6 win over Washington in the
CC final on Sunday. With the
win, the Bullets (14-3) earned a berth in the NCAA tournament, the program’s 15th
in the past 17 seasons. The tournament field will be announced later on Sunday
with first-round action slated for Wednesday.
Pryor,
the team’s leading scorer with 56 points, tallied one goal and handed out three
assists, including one on T.J. Liberto’s (Arnold, MD/St. Mary’s)
go-ahead goal that snapped a 5-all tie with 1:09 left in the third quarter. Vaughan
and the Gettysburg defense made it stand up, holding the Shoremen (10-5) to a
single goal on five shots in the final quarter.
Evan
Gallant (Lutherville, MD/Loyola Blakefield) and Kevin Freehill (Baldwin,
NY/Baldwin) scored a team-high two goals apiece in the win, including
one goal each in the Bullets’ game-closing 3-1 run.
Jon Spivey led Washington (10-5) with three
goals while Kevin Thibadeau made 14 saves in the loss.
After watching Spivey rally the Shoremen to a 5-5 tie with
back-to-back goals midway through the third quarter, Gettysburg answered with
a final push to claim the title.
Vaughan
kept it even with a save on Kevin Nolan and Liberto finished on
the Bullets’ next trip down the field to put the hosts ahead 6-5 heading into
the final quarter.
Gallant followed with his second
goal of the game to make it 7-5, rifling a shot past Thibadeau with 11:45 remaining.
Washington needed 36 seconds to respond. Chris Read,
who scored six goals in a semifinal victory over Dickinson on Friday, netted his
lone goal of the final following Brent Hann’s face-off win to pull
the Shoremen within 7-6.
Thibadeau
temporarily kept the visitors within a goal, making back-to-back saves on Pryor
and Chase Stewart (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown), the latter a heart-stopper
from point-blank range. Vaughan denied Andrew Ostrusky moments later,
but Freehill finished a solo run for a key insurance goal that stretched the Gettysburg
lead to 8-6 with 6:50 remaining.
Washington
had a final one-minute extra-man opportunity with 3:02 left, but the Bullets killed
the chance, then ran out the clock to clinch the victory.
Keyed by seven saves from Thibadeau, the Shoremen escaped
the first quarter tied 1-1, then took their only lead of the day when Mike Hughes
scored directly off the opening face-off of the second quarter.
The first collegiate goal from Jim Culp (Swarthmore,
PA/Ridley) 18 seconds later spurred a 3-0 Gettysburg run that made it
4-2 at halftime. Brian Ford’s (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna) second goal
of the playoffs gave the Bullets a 5-3 advantage before Spivey struck twice in
a span of 2 minutes, 21 seconds to knot the game at 5.
With his 11-save Sunday following a 17-save semifinal,
Vaughan finished the CC playoffs with a .718 save percentage and 5.50 goals-against
average. Defensively, Gettysburg killed all 11 man-down situations in the two
games.
As a team, the Bullets improved
to 9-1 in the CC playoffs, including a 4-1 mark in conference championship games.
| CC Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | F |
| #9 Washington (10-5) | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | 6 |
| #4 Gettysburg (14-3) | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | - | 8 |
Goals
Washington: Jon Spivey 3, Chris Read, Andrew Ostrusky,
Mike Hughes.
Gettysburg: Evan
Gallant 2, Kevin Freehill 2, Brian Pryor, T.J. Liberto, Brian Ford, Jim Culp.
Assists
Washington: Kevin Nolan.
Gettysburg:
Pryor 3, Chase Stewart.
Shots:
W 26, G 37.
Ground Balls:
W 31, G 34.
Goalies: W
(Kevin Thibadeau – 60:00, 14 saves, 8 GA), G (Pat Vaughan – 60:00, 11 saves, 6
GA).
Extra-Man: W 0 of 5,
G 0 of 2.
Face-Offs: W 8,
G 9.
Clearing: W 15 of 22,
G 22 of 24.
Penalties: W 2
for 1:00, G 5 for 4:00.
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