Endicott makes eighth straight TCCC Championship; defeats Gordon 16-7
May 4, 2011
Beverly, Mass. – The Endicott men’s lacrosse team will appear in their eighth straight conference championship game, a stretch in which they have won five titles, after beating the \#3 seed Gordon 16-7 on Wednesday at Endicott Stadium.
Playing as the \#2 seed in the TCCC Tournament, the Gulls will move on to face the winner of \#4 New England College and \#1 Western New England to be play on Wednesday evening. The TCCC Championship will be played on Saturday, May 7th. Game time and location is to be determined depending on the outcome of the other semifinal.
In today’s semifinal against the Fighting Scots, Gulls senior attacker Jack Curtis (Chelmsford, Mass.) scored three goals and assisted on three more to lead the home team with six points. Defensively, senior defenseman Andrew Pochebit (Portland, Maine) tallied five caused turnovers.
For Gordon, senior midfielder Dan Utz (Rochester, N.Y.) also found the back of the net three times and had two assists in the loss. Scots senior defenseman Stuart Knechtle (New Canaan, Conn.) led all players with seven caused turnovers and had a team-high eight ground balls.
Endicott sophomore goalie Mike Klein (Darien, Conn.) made 11 stops between the pipes, improving his 2011 record to 12-3 while Gordon goalie Houston Zemanski (Annapolis, Md.) took the loss despite making nine saves.
Endicott used six different goal scorers in the opening quarter to take a 7-1 lead after 15 minutes. The Gulls opened the game by scoring six straight goals, including two by team-leader Connor McCormack (Norwalk, Conn.). Senior midfielder Kyle Jordan (Falmouth, Maine) put Endicott on the board with 11:22 to go in the first quarter on an unassisted tally. Twenty eight seconds later, sophomore Brian Estes (Derry, N.H.) beat the goalie with an assist to Curtis to put the Blue and Green up 2-0. Curtis and junior Ryan Tocci (Arlington, Mass.) also scored goals during the 6-0 streak for Endicott.
Gordon got their first goal of the game at the 3:47 mark of the first quarter as Stuart Knechtle received a pass from junior midfielder Adam Quinn (Gloucester, Mass.) and scored to make it 6-1 Endicott.
Gulls senior midfielder Chris Cotter (Lordship, Conn.) was Endicott’s sixth goal scorer of the quarter, scoring his first of two goals with 13 seconds left on the clock in the first quarter.
Both teams netted two goals in the second quarter with Harry Holden (Duxbury, Mass.) and Sam Ozycz (Cheshire, Conn.) scoring for the Gulls while Utz and Zac Blue (Monticello, Minn.) each scored for the Scots. Ozycz’s goal was unassisted, coming 10 seconds after one of his 19 successful face off conversions. The junior also had a game-high 14 ground balls. Endicott would take a 9-3 lead going into halftime.
The Gulls continued their strong play in the third quarter, outscoring Gordon 6-1 in the period. Curtis scored twice towards the end of the period while McCormack added his third goal of the game. For the Scots, Quinn scored his only goal of the game with an assist to Blue mid-way through the third quarter.
Gordon outscored Endicott 3-2 in the final quarter as Utz beat the keeper twice while senior attacker Tom Wholley (Glastonbury, Conn.) scored as well. Endicott’s Brian Vincent (Norwalk, Conn.) and Greg Dunlavey (Ballston Spa, N.Y.) each recorded goals in the final period.