The Aquinas men's lacrosse team pulled out a big WHAC victory on Thursday afternoon (Apr. 15), notching an 11-10 overtime win over #9 Lourdes at the AQ Athletic Field. Trailing 6-3 at halftime, the Saints tied the game in the fourth quarter and won in the extra session with a golden goal scored by Nash West.
With the victory, (RV) AQ moves to 3-3 on the season and 3-2 in WHAC play. The top-10 Gray Wolves fall to 5-4 on the season and 3-2 in conference action.
It was a back-and-forth WHAC battle in a game that saw Aquinas outscore Lourdes in three of the four quarters, but the Gray Wolves scored all five of the game's second quarter goals. There were multiple lead changes in the game, with each team leading twice throughout the opening 60 minutes.
Lourdes scored the opening goal less than two minutes into the game, but Aquinas responded with three straight goals to close out the first quarter. Mitch Haggart scored twice, sandwiched around a Nash West goal to give the Saints a 3-1 edge. The second quarter, however, was all Lourdes, as the Gray Wolves notched a 5-0 run to take the 6-3 advantage to halftime.
Walker West opened the scoring in the third quarter, followed by consecutive goals from Haggart to notch the game at 6-6. Lourdes went in front 7-6 heading into the fourth quarter, but another 3-0 AQ run (two goals from Zachary Sweet, one from Haggart) put the Saints back in front, 9-7.
The Gray Wolves again tied the game up at 9-9 with back-to-back goals before Aquinas took a 10-9 advantage with 2:44 remaining on Haggart's sixth goal of the game. Less than a minute later, however, Lourdes again tied things up, scoring at the 1:56 mark for a 10-10 tie. The Gray Wolves had two great shot opportunities in the closing 25 seconds, but AQ's Clayton Boerigter came through with a pair of huge saves to send the game to the extra session.
In overtime, Boerigter made another clutch stop on Lourdes' opening possession and got the ball back to the Saints offense. Late in the shot clock on the ensuing possession, Nash West came from the wing and beat his defender top side, firing a shot from 10 yards out to tally the game-winning goal and the 11-10 victory.
AQ held a 38-32 advantage in shots and forced 22 Lourdes turnovers. Lourdes maintained a 39-31 edge in ground balls and won 20 of the 25 faceoffs.
Haggart netted six goals on 14 shots, 10 of which came on goal. He also picked up four ground balls. Sweet, the reigning National Player of the Week, scored twice on five shots and totaled three ground balls. Nash West added two goals and an assist and Walker West scored once with a pair of assists.
Blake Baker passed for two assists and Hunter Roberts, Jack Rioux, and Grant Caswell added one assist apiece.
Boerigter recorded 14 saves in the win, including the several clutch late-game stops. Gavin Kleynenberg caused three turnovers and Sam Asare-Konadu forced a pair of turnovers.
