Box Score Emmitsburg, Md. - Despite having an advantage in most statistical categories, the Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team dropped its inaugural Northeast Conference (NEC) game as it fell, 12-11, at Mount St. Mary's in a tightly-contested, back-and-forth affair Saturday afternoon at Waldron Family Stadium.
Robert Morris took more shots, collected more ground balls, won more faceoffs and converted their clears at a higher percentage, but the Mountaineers, a 2010 NCAA participant, somehow managed to pull out the victory. The Colonials also held Mount St. Mary's without a single special-teams goal, marking the first time in their past 15 contests that they achieved such a feat against their opponent.
The Colonials and Mountaineers could never distance themselves from one another as neither side led by more than a single goal in the first 53 minutes of the contest, and the teams also combined for nine ties.
Senior captain Trevor Moore (Port Coquitlam, British Columbia / Western Reserve Academy) led the Robert Morris effort by registering his 16th-career hat trick. It also marked his eighth multi-goal game of the season and the 10th consecutive contest in which he tallied at least two points.
Moore opened the scoring just 31 seconds into the contest, but the Mountaineers evened the proceedings just 47 seconds later. After RMU killed off a penalty, Mount St. Mary's took its first lead with 7:38 to play in the opening quarter. The Colonials responded just over three minutes later when junior midfielder Teddy Finnegan (West Islip, N.Y. / West Islip) recorded his first goal as a Colonial not long after a successful clear attempt.
The teams would then go scoreless for over 11 minutes until Robert Morris retook the lead when senior captain Patrick Smith (Westminster, Md. / Westminster) scored courtesy of classmate Corbyn Tao-Brambleby (Coquitlam, British Columbia / Western Reserve Academy).
The Mountaineers followed with consecutive scores 1:02 apart and appeared poised to take a multi-goal lead when RMU committed an infraction. However, Robert Morris again refused to allow a man-up goal and used this momentum to again tie the game when Moore found the net with 4:30 left.
Mount St. Mary's took the lead once again with 3:32 to play in the first half, but the Colonials scored twice over the final 2:27 to claim a 6-5 edge heading into halftime as junior Casey Abbott (San Jose, Calif. / Bellarmine Prep.) and Tao-Brambleby scored, respectively.
After RMU fired four shots in the opening two minutes of the second half, the Mountaineers were able to clear and soon tied the game. Each squad would score three more times over the remainder of the quarter with neither leading for more than two minutes consecutively.
Mount St. Mary's took a 10-9 lead about three minutes into the fourth and would grab the game's first two-goal edge when it scored with 6:21 left to play. Moore cut the lead back to one, 11-10, with his third score that came with 5:02 remaining.
Robert Morris had multiple possessions and fired a shot for the tie, but the Mountaineers collected their final goal with 1:40 left, increasing the margin back to two.
The situation soon grew worse for the Colonials when they were called for a penalty. However, RMU refused to give in as just 15 seconds later junior Kyle Buchanan (Nepean, Ontario / John McCrae) scored his first-career man-down goal to keep the Colonials' hopes alive.
RMU won the ensuing faceoff, and Smith ripped a game-tying attempt that was saved. The Colonials called timeout with 29 seconds to play as they searched for the game-winning score, but Robert Morris was unable to find the back of the net before the horn sounded.
Smith collected his sixth multi-goal game of the season, Buchanan tallied his sixth multi-point game of the season and Tao-Brambleby recorded his fifth multi-point contest of 2011. Smith finished with two goals and an assist to notch at least three points for the fifth time this season.
A number of Colonials also tallied first-time occurrences on the season. Abbott snagged his first multi-point game, senior Keith Lee (Hudson, Ohio / Western Reserve Academy) netted his first two points of the season and sophomore Tyler Digby (Westminster, British Columbia / New Westminster) registered his first point with a third-quarter assist.
RMU will look for its first NEC victory when it plays its second consecutive road game next Saturday, April 9, against Quinnipiac. The first-ever meeting between the Colonials and Bobcats is set to take place at 1:00 p.m.
