When Eastern University Men's Lacrosse earned an 11-10 overtime win at Centenary Collelge on Wednesday, the Eagles picked up the program's first ever triple-overtime win. Junior Pat Dempsey scored his third goal of the game just a few seconds into the third overtime to lift the Eagles to their first win of the year.
The host Cyclones jumped to an early lead with a Bryan Watkinson goal four and a half minutes into the game. Centenary held that lead until the 12th minute of the match when Dempsey forced a turnover and advanced the ball upfield. Ben O'Donnell found a cutting Nate Trunfio in front of the net, and the Eagles leveled the score.
An equipment violation on the Cyclones gave Eastern a man up opportunity, and the Eagles scored just eighteen seconds later on a Michael Ryan shot off a pass from Kyle Dresser. With both teams back at full strength, the Eagles scored again at the two minute mark on Dempsey's first of the game. The Eastern scoring flurry continued fifty seconds later on an unassisted tally from Kyle Dresser.
Down 4-1, the Cyclones struck with a Nate Small goal with 15 seconds to play. Small led all scorers in the game with six goals. The Eagles almost stole the goal back in the final two seconds when Ryan's shot hit the post.
The second quarter started with Centenary drawing level on goals from Rory Murray and Small. Dempsey put the Eagles up 5-4 at the four minute mark on a nice pass from Nick Mandia, but the Cyclones responded with three goals in a minute, including two by Small to take a 7-5 lead into the break.
The Eagles pulled even in the third quarter on goals from O'Donnell, Trunfio, and Mandi. Centenary got a goal from Small. The Eagles took a 9-8 lead at the start of the fourth quarter when Ryan found Dresser for a rare man-down goal. O'Donnell put in his second goal of the game with 11:30 left, and it looked like the game might be sealed up for the visitors.
Centenary scored with three and a half minutes to play and again with three minutes to play to tie the game up. Neither team could orchestrate a quality chance at goal over the last three minutes, and the game headed to overtime.
Both goalies made several saves through the first two four minute overtime periods. The Cyclone's Brian Trolio finished the game with 20 saves, and Eastern's Zach Rivest finished with 14 in the win. The game winner came just 37 seconds into the third overtime after Nick Mandia gathered a rebound of his own shot and found Dempsey in front of the net for the win.
Eastern Coach John Levis said of the win, "It doesn't get any wilder than that. It was a big win for us in that they were a team that we lost to last year, and we felt like we needed to find some momentum. I'm very proud of the ways our guys persisted." Centenary will join the PAC for the 2007-2008 school year.
The Eagles upcoming schedule includes a non-conference game against Christopher Newport before beginning PAC play.
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