The Beloit College men's lacrosse team scored twice in the final 2:16 to top Cornell 18-17 in a thrilling game Wednesday evening at Strong Stadium
The offenses were on fire despite the wind and cold temperatures Wednesday night.
The teeter-totter battle got going from the opening faceoff as the teams traded goals until Andrei Prikhodko, Adam Heckman and Michael Boyland notched three in a row to give Beloit a 4-2 advantage. Prikhodko sparked the burst with a nifty behind the back shot that froze the keeper and sailed into the back of the net. Cornell responded with a single goal that was cancelled out by Boyland's score with just 12 seconds remaining off an assist from Steven Soli to send the Buccaneers into the second quarter with a 5-3 advantage.
An unfortunate own goal sparked a 4-0 Rams run in the second before the teams went back to trading scores the rest of the quarter to head into the halftime with Cornell leading 9-7.
The back-and-forth continued as Boyland and Ezra Rogers added tallies in the goals column with Cornell scoring in between. The Rams responded to the Rogers' goal with three straight to take a 13-9 lead with just over three minutes to go in the quarter. Boyland found Gannon for the final goal of the quarter at the 2:06 mark to make it 13-10.
Prikhodko made good on a Boyland pass two minutes in to make it 13-11 but the Rams responded less than a minute later to push the margin back to three, 14-11. Prikhodko struck again at 11:11 and Boyland found Gannon with 10:34 on the scoreboard to pull Beloit to within one. Once again, Cornell had the response notching two goals to widen the gap back to three, 16-13. The Bucs exploded for three in a row as Prikhodko and Gannon found the back of the net and then Adam Heckman found the ball and scored on a flurry in front of the Cornell net to tie the game 16-16 with less than 4:30 to play in the game.
Less than 30 seconds later, the Rams reclaimed the lead but the Bucs would not be deterred.
Gannon took advantage of a man-up opportunity to knot the game 17-17 with 2:16 to play before Boyland tallied the game-winning score on an unassisted goal with just over a minute on the clock.
Boyland, Gannon and Prikhodko each registered five goals in the game as Boyland added five assists. Luke Thomson was active in the middle of the field especially on loose ball situations recording 13 groundballs and adding three caused turnovers. Keeler Tardiff and Gannon also tallied three caused turnovers.
David Kunczynski posted 11 saves in the win.
The Buccaneers will have the weekend to prepare for a long mid-week trip to Minnesota. Beloit will face North Central University on the University of Northwestern-St. Paul campus at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 17.
