The No. 3 Ithaca College men’s lacrosse team lost their second straight game, falling to Empire 8 rival Stevens Ducks 11–10 on April 1 in Hoboken, NJ. The Bombers now fall to 8–2 and 2–1 in Empire 8 play. The Ducks advance to 7–3 and 2–0 in conference play.
Senior attacker Jack Shumway led with a team-high three goals and three assists. Senior midfielder Grant Osadchey went 8–14 on faceoffs and freshman defender Aaron McCartney scooped up three ground balls. Senior goalie Jack Deragon made seven saves for the team.
The Ducks took an early 2–0 lead with 7:35 left in the first quarter. However, goals by junior midfielders Stephen Morrell and Greg Drillock quickly tied up the score going into the second quarter.
Less than 30 seconds into the second quarter, Shumway gave the Bombers a one-goal lead on a man-up opportunity. After back and forth for the next several minutes, the Ducks tied the game 3–3 heading into halftime.
The teams exchanged pairs of goals to make it 5–5 going into the final 15 minutes and exchanged again. After going down 6–5 with 14:08 to go, the South Hill squad went on a 5–0 run in four minutes to give the team a 10–6 lead.
The Bombers tried to keep the lead through the end of the game, but the Ducks would score four unanswered goals to tie the game 10–10 with 1:09 left in the contest.
After a turnover by the Ducks on their next possession the Bombers took over and called a timeout with 17 seconds left to set up a play. When the clock started running, Morrell got a shot off wide of the net and the game was forced to overtime.
In overtime, the Ducks got the ball first after a faceoff-violation by the Bombers. With 2:40 left, Derragon kept the game alive with a save, but less than a minute later, the Ducks junior attacker Tommy Dawson put the game away with a goal.
The Bombers went four for five on man-up possessions and forced 14 turnovers by Stevens. However, the Bombers suffered from 11 penalties and turned the ball over 12 times.
The South Hill squad will return to action at 1 p.m. April 8, when they travel to Rochester, New York to face the Nazareth Golden Flyers.
