RICHMOND, Va. – Despite trailing by five goals at halftime, the High Point University men's lacrosse team rallied to take down No. 1-seed Saint Joseph's with a gritty effort in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament. The Panthers scored 11 second-half goals to pull off the storybook comeback to play for their second conference tournament championship in three seasons.
Site: Robins Stadium
Score: No. 4 High Point 16, No. 1 Saint Joseph's
Records: No. 4 High Point (9-7, 2-3 A10), No. 1 Saint Joseph's (10-5, 5-0 A10)
"From our leaders to our staff, to our bench, to the guys on the field, it was a total team effort against a very, very good team," said Torpey. "That team is very strong up the middle, they've got incredibly talented offensive and defensive players, and a phenomenal staff. So, it was just a great overall effort from our team."
The Panther defense held strong in the first possession, forcing a Hawks turnover and capitalizing with a
Jack Sawyer goal from
Jack VanOverbeke. SJU went on to score the next five goals, but the Panthers rallied from behind to tie the game at 5-5 at the end of the first quarter.
"Our guys' resilience going down 5-1 and then going into halftime down, 10-5, I'm just so proud of them, they never flinched," said head coach
Jon Torpey. "It's something we've talked about all week. We've had these games where we play great, but then we have lapses when we've given up some runs. So, for the guys to answer back like that today was incredible."
Hunter Vines had back-to-back goals as the Panther ride stumped the Hawks' clear.
Brayden Mayea scooped up a 50-50 ground ball and found Vines, who scored at the crease with ease. The menacing Panther ride brought the ball back to Vines' stick, who dove coming back around the goal to score with an open net opportunity.
Back within 5-3 with 2:32 to play, HPU held the momentum for the rest of the quarter as
Michael Ippolito found VanOverbeke, who scored at a near-impossible angle to bring the Panthers within one. With time winding down on the last possession of the period, VanOverbeke once again hit Sawyer on a skip pass across the field to tie the game at five goals apiece.
The second quarter was all SJU as the Hawks scored five more unanswered goals and kept the Panthers off the board in the frame.
High Point stormed out of halftime, scoring four goals in less than three minutes of game clock to make it a 10-9 game.
Nick Rizzo was the first to score out of the break on a dish from Vines. Less than 30 seconds later,
Henry Mudlaff ran the ball down the field on a fastbreak which allowed
Grant Ammann to trail and take an open shot from deep for the pole goal and his second winner of the year.
The Panther tacked on two more goals in the next minute from Mayea and
Jaxson Lamb to work back within one.
SJU extended its lead with the next two goals, but Mayea and
Nick Murphy scored on consecutive possession to keep within 12-11.
HPU would continue the hot streak heading into the fourth quarter as VanOverbeke added another score from Rizzo before freshman
Ryan Hynes took the ball to the goal himself for his fourth score of the season, giving HPU its first lead since 12:05 in the first quarter.
Lamb extended the lead, 14-12, on a find from Vines with 7:05 remaining, the largest lead High Point had held all night. While the Hawks countered with another goal after five minutes of scoreless play, HPU would tack on two more scores after
Collin Hoben dominated play at face-off X. Hoben won a face-off with two minutes to play and ran the ball down the field, finding VanOverbeke for the quick score before Vines capitalized on another with 1:18 to play, holding the three-goal advantage.
While HPU penalties kept the Panthers short-staffed on the defensive end in the last minute of play,
Parker Green and the rest of the unit made several saves and blocks to limit the Hawks to just one goal with less than a second left on the clock, securing the Panther victory and prompting sideline celebrations.
Up Next: High Point will play for its second conference tournament championship in three seasons on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers will face the winner of No. 2 Richmond/No. 3 UMass at noon in Robins Stadium.
#GoHPU x #A10MLAX
