Fairfield Rallies From Four-Goal Deficit to Defeat Drexel, 8-7

Saturday, April 9

Fairfield, Conn.

3:00

Drexel University

4-7, 0-2CAA

Fairfield

6-6, 2-0CAA

Drexel

Fairfield

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Fairfield Rallies From Four-Goal Deficit to Defeat Drexel, 8-7

4/9/2016 5:02:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Fairfield, Conn. – Fairfield battled back from a four-goal second half deficit and defeated Drexel, 8-7, at Rafferty Field on Saturday afternoon. The win moved the Stags (6-6) into a tie for first in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 2-0 mark in league play. Drexel fell to 4-7 overall and 0-2 in conference.

Fairfield's T.J. Neubauer third goal of the game proved to be the game winner with 3:20 to play. Charlie Horning fed Neubauer, whose shot from about 15 yards out gave the Stags the lead. Fairfield held possession after that until it was called for a shot clock violation. However, the Dragons struggled to get into the offensive zone. When they finally did get it in, Hank Brown's shot from a distance went high with five seconds to play. The Dragons called timeout with 4.7 seconds to go, but were unable to get a shot off with the last possession as the Stags finished off the comeback.

The Stags trailed 6-2 early in the second half after Nabil Akl's nifty flip to Jordan Cunningham resulted in Cunningham's first of the year gave Drexel a four-goal lead just 22 seconds into the second half. Fairfield started its comeback minutes later when Charlie Schnider fed Drew Murray on the crease, cutting the deficit to 6-3. The third quarter turned into a defensive struggle and the score remained the same until the final seconds of the period. The Stags made it 6-4 with just 11 seconds to play. Neubauer scored his second of the game and Fairfield trailed by just two entering the fourth.

In the fourth, Murray scored again, this time on the man-up at the 13:26 mark to trim the lead to 6-5 and Colin Burke tied it up with 8:45 to play. Just 1:15 later, Burke was at it again, this time from 12 yards out to give the Stags their first lead. Drexel answered with 6:16 to play as Joe Rainoldi raced down the right alley and fired a bounce shot into the far corner. That would be Drexel's last goal of the day as the Dragons fell for the second straight week in a road CAA contest.

The Dragons started the game off well, especially on the defensive end. The Stags committed five turnovers in the first half. Miles Thomas, who had five ground balls on the day. caused the first one and Drexel went downfield and got on the scoreboard just a minute and a half into the game. Freshman Matthew Varian fed Rainoldi who scored his 13^th goal of the season. That would be the last goal for a stretch of more than 11 minutes. Drexel took a two-goal lead when Frank Fusco spun to his left and walked in on the right wing with 2:12 to go in the quarter and found the net. It appeared Drexel would take that two-goal lead to the second quarter, but Fairfield's Schnider, who was stationed behind the net, found Neubauer in front of the net. The senior fired a shot past Jimmy Joe Granito as the horn sounded. The goal counted and Drexel's lead was 2-1 after 15 minutes.

In the second quarter, Drexel's Marshal King found Will Manganiello on the left side and he fired a shot from 10 yards out to and beat Fairfield keeper Tyler Behring. Less than two minutes later, DU's Brown beat his defender to the top of the crease and the senior scored from five yards out for the second time this year, making it 4-1. The Stags cut into the lead when Burke found Schnider cutting in towards the goal and he scored on the doorstep, making it a two-goal game with 9:22 to play in the half. The game remained 4-2 until Drexel got its second three-goal cushion of the day with just over three minutes left in the half. Jake Kiernan made a terrific play, knocking the stick out of a Fairfield player's hands in the Drexel end. Kiernan picked up the ground ball, raced into the offensive end and found Fusco, who headed towards the cage and had his shot just trickle by Behring to give Drexel a 5-2 lead.

Schnider finished the day with five assists and six points to lead the Stags. Neubauer finised with a hat trick and Burke had two goals and an assist. Fairfield outshot Drexel, 40-21. Rainoldi and Fusco each scored twice for the Dragons. Akl had his best game of the season, winning 11 of his 17 face-off attempts. Granito made eight saves for the Dragons, while Behring had seven for Fairfield.

Drexel will play two of its final three games at Vidas Field in Philadelphia. The Dragons host Hofstra in a critical CAA game on Saturday at 4 p.m. Drexel will then visit Delaware before wrapping up the regular season at home against UMass.