May 5th, 2008 | Written by: Michael Noonan | Posted in Uncategorized |
After a very hard fought season, the UC Men’s Lacrosse team qualified for the Final Four National Championships for the first time in the team’s 5 year existence.
The Bearcats won their first game against Millersville, PA 7-6 in OT. UC came out to a very slow start letting the Marauder’s score 2 goals in the first 2 minutes. The game remained 2-0 throughout the 1st quarter. Freshman attackman Zack Fehr scored the team’s first goal of the tournament taking them into halftime with a score of 3-1.
The Bearcats came out slow again in the 2nd half letting Millersville score 3 more goals in 3 minutes to take a 5-1 lead. UC called a timeout and made some changes on defense which flustered Millersville. The offense began to rally and scored 5 unanswered goals to take the lead 6-5 with 2:47 left in the game.
Both teams started to show fatigue, and the game turned into a battle of possession. Millersville took 3 shots in the remaining two minutes, with 2.4 seconds remaining in regulation they tied up the game at 6 all.
UC came out slow again at the beginning of overtime letting Millersville take 3 more shots on Junior goalie Kyle O’Neal. With 15 second remaining O’Neal threw a perfect pass to midfielder Brandon Mowery who ran the ball down the field, passed to Freshman attackman Danny Macauley who scored the game winner win 0.7 seconds remaining in the 1st overtime to end the game.
The very next day, the Bearctas faced a very tough Cortland team fro upstate New York. Unlike the semi-finals UC came out strong taking an early 4-0 lead. “Our offense was being patient, possessing the ball, and only taking smart shots” Stated sophomore defenseman Paul McKay. The Bearctas went into halftime with an 8-5 lead and showed no signs of letting up.
Cortland made drastic changes to their offensive approach for the 2nd half and took advantage of UC’s defensive weaknesses. Cortland scored 5 unanswered goals in the 3rd quarter to take a 10-8 lead. Both teams became very tired for the 4th quarter on a field that registered 100+ field temperatures during gametime in Lynchburg Virginia. the game ended with a score of 12-10 in Cortland’s favor.
The team arrived back in Cincinnati at 3am Monday morning as the Runner-Up in the National College Lacrosse League and hold the #2 rank in the country.
The Bearcats Men’s Lacrosse team is comprised of 22 players who had an amazing season. Senior Midfielder and assistant coach Kevin Bissmeyer stated ” No one expected us to win the Midwest Regionals and compete for the national title.” Only 2 seniors are not returning next year, Mike Noonan and Grant Maddox, and the rest of the team will be prepared for a title run again next year.
IT WAS A HELL OF A RIDE!!!
