Dragons Fall in Overtime Heartbreaker Against Hofstra in CAA Championship Final

Saturday, May 3

Vidas Field

5:00 p.m.

Drexel University

Hofstra (Finals)

Ambler scored twice for the Dragons in their first CAA Championship appearance

Dragons Fall in Overtime Heartbreaker Against Hofstra in CAA Championship Final

5/3/2008 7:46:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score
Philadelphia – Hofstra came out on top of Drexel 10-9 in overtime of the CAA Men's Lacrosse Championship Final. The contest was the second overtime game for the squads in as many meetings this season. The Pride rallied from a two-goal deficit, down 9-7, with 1:18 remaining in the game. Thomas Dooley scored the game-winner for Hofstra just 11 seconds into overtime to give the Pride a 10-9 victory and their second Colonial Athletic Association Championship.

Anthony Muscarella scored four goals for Hofstra and Kevin Unterstein, who was named Player of the Tournament, scored three times for the Pride. Colin Ambler and Scott Perri scored two goals apiece for the Dragons. Hofstra outshot Drexel 39-31 overall. The Dragons won 14 of 22 face offs and picked up 31 grounders to Hofstra's 27.

Trailing 9-7 the Pride pulled its goalie in the final two minutes of the game to gain an extra attacker. It paid off with a goal by Muscarella with 1:18 in the game on a shot over his shoulder to the left side of the net as he cut to the right.

The Pride came up with a big ground ball off the ensuing draw as Joseph Motemurro scooped up the faceoff and sprinted to the sideline for a timeout. Off the offensive set Hofstra got a quick shot by Muscarella from five yards out that was saved by Bickford, his third in the final five minutes of the period. The ball came loose on the ground but Dan Stein picked it up and finished it off for the tying goal.

Ryan West won the ensuing draw for Drexel and the Dragons got a timeout with 43 seconds left. A bouncing shot by Van Houten was picked up by Orlando and sent into transition by the Pride's attack. Steve DeNapoli fed Jay Card on the left side but his close-range shot was saved by Bickford in the final seconds to send the game into overtime for the second time in as many meetings between the teams.

Bickford, the CAA Player of the Year, and the Drexel defense served Hofstra early notice that they were in for a low-scoring struggle in the CAA Championship Final. Bickford, who stymied the Pride with a highlight-reel save in overtime of the team's last meeting, made five stops in the opening period of the final game. The Pride held a slim 2-0 lead after the first period, but did not score until the 3:54 mark in the quarter. Anthony Muscarella tacked on a second tally with just under two minutes left on a close-range blast on the right side of the crease.

Drexel got on the board early in the second quarter on a goal by Colin Ambler from the left side to make it a 3-1 game. Hofstra went up 4-1 on another close goal by Mike Unterstein early in the second quarter. But Drexel answered with a run of three goals in less than a minute and a half to knot the score at 4-4. Ron Garling started the run with a man-up goal after a pushing penalty. Ambler notched his second tally of the evening 27 seconds later. Steve Grossi picked up a ground ball after a scramble and quickly fed Greg Casey for a fast break. Casey flicked it to Ambler who made it a 4-3 game at the 4:11 mark. Joe Wojciechowski threw in the tying goal with 3:06 on the clock resulting in a Hofstra timeout. The Pride went back up 5-4 on a Michael Colleluori goal with 43 seconds left but the Dragons weren't finished.

Kevin Dart cradled the ball down field as time ticked down. He crossed midfield with five seconds left and launched himself to forward to get open while flinging the ball from over the upper right side of the goalie's shoulder to tie the game at 5-5 with one second left in the half.

Hofstra outshot Drexel 22-15 in the first half but Bickford made up the difference in saves edging Danny Orlando 8-5 in stops in net. Drexel won 7-of-11 faceoffs and converted the only man-up opportunity of the half.

Both teams converted man-up opportunities in the third period. Hofstra struck first just under four minutes into the period to go ahead 6-5. Scott Perri evened it with a quick spin move on the left side to beat Orlando high and make it a 6-6 game. The Dragons took their first lead of the game on their second extra-man opportunity of the game. Kevin Stockel carried the ball into the middle and faked a pass before feeding a cutting Greg Casey who faked another pass to get open and placed his shot in the upper right side of the net to put his team on top 7-6 with 5:10 remaining in the quarter.

Unterstein brought Hofsta back to a draw with goal from straight on about five yards out, his third tally of the game which made it a 7-7 game. Drexel surged back with two goals in 12 seconds starting with a Perri diving shot from close range at the 12:52 mark. Perri's second of the game made it 8-7 and was rapidly followed by Dennis Murray score on a shot from 10 yards out that found its way through traffic and into the net. The Dragons killed off three straight man-down situations including two in the fourth quarter to preserve their 9-7 advantage.

Michael Colleluori, Collin Stabler, Joseph Montemurro and Jack Vivonetto joined Unterstein on the All-Tournament Team. Defender Steve Grossi, attackman Colin Ambler and goalie Bruce Bickford were Drexel's representatives on the teams.