ONEONTA, N.Y. – Trailing 11-6 with 9:08 remaining in regulation, the Wentworth Institute of Technology men's lacrosse team scored four straight goals, including three in the final 12 seconds, however the Leopards came up just short of Oneonta, falling 11-10.
With the win the Red Dragons improve to 2-0 while Wentworth suffers its first defeat of the 2019 campaign, falling to 2-1.
Oneonta had five different players score the first five goals of the game, which included taking a 4-0 lead after one quarter of play. After the hosts took a 5-0 lead with a goal at the 12:26 mark of the second quarter, the two teams traded goals for the remainder of the half. Senior Jason Buck (Manlius, N.Y.) got the Black & Gold on the board with 9:49 remaining while sophomore Ben Coakley (Flemington, N.J.) had a pair of man-up goals to make it an 8-3 game at the half.
The Red Dragons extended their lead to 10-3 after goals from senior Pete McCormack (Mineola, N.Y.) and senior Stephen Panno (Holtsville, N.Y.) at 14:39 and 10:36 respectively. Coakley and Buck scored for Wentworth to trim the lead to 10-5 after three quarters of play before Coakley's marker 33 seconds into the fourth quarter made it a 10-6 game.
Senior Thomas Moore (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) put Oneonta back up by five (11-6) with a man-up goal at the 9:08 mark of the quarter before the Leopards began their comeback. Junior Kyle Doner (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) scored off a feed from Coakley with 5:13 left and began Wentworth's scoring frenzy when he scored from freshman Sam Prunier (Hollis, N.H.) with 12 seconds left. Prunier got the ground ball after senior Kilian Ryan (Saranac Lake, N.Y.) caused a turnover. Freshman Radu Stancescu (Suffren, N.Y.) won the ensuing faceoff where senior Jacob Eldred (Goffstown, N.H.) picked up the ground ball and went in to make it 11-9 with four ticks left. Stancescu picked up another faceoff win on a violation where Eldred again went in alone and cut the deficit to just one before time ran out.
Sophomore Thomas McRae (Northport, N.Y.) had two goals and an assist for the Red Dragons while Moore and sophomore Ryan MacDevitt (Sayville, N.Y.) each tallied twice. Sophomore Logan Michalisin (Niskayuna, N.Y.) also had a goal and an assist. Junior Zachary Flynn (Stony Brook, N.Y.) scooped up five ground balls while senior Andrew Sehres (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) caused four turnovers.
Coakley led the Leopards with four goals and an assist. Eldred and Doner each had two goals and two assists, while Buck tallied twice. Stancescu, who was 16-of-23 at the X, scooped up a game-high eight ground balls.
Flynn made 15 saves for the Red Dragons. Sophomore Randy Ryan (Clinton, N.J.) turned aside 13 shots for Wentworth. The Leopards had advantages in shots (48-40) and ground balls (29-24) and was successful on 19-of-20 clear attempts.
Wentworth squares off against St. Joseph's (Maine) on Wednesday in Davenport, Fla.
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