The Aquinas men's lacrosse team began its 2022 season on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 17) by earning a double overtime win against Webber International. After neither team was able to seal the deal in regulation or the first overtime,
Joey Fitzgerald scored the golden goal at 2:47 when he was assisted on the goal by
Jon Jardis to give the Saints the 9-8 win.
Both teams were receiving votes in the NAIA Top-10 Poll and with this victory AQ moves to 1-0 on the season, while the Webber International Warriors falls to 2-1.
Aquinas was the first team to strike in the back-and-forth matchup when they scored at 9:27 of the first quarter as
Zachary Sweet scored his first of four goals on the day. However, Webber International responded with two goals at the 7:53 and 4:30 minute marks to lead after 15 minutes of play. The second goal came a man up after AQ was called for a one minute cross-checking penalty.
In the second period at 12:26, Sweet scored his second goal when he was assisted by
Jon Jardis to tie the game back up at two. The Warriors responded three minutes later as the back-and-forth game continued to take back a one-goal lead. The Saints responded with two consecutive goals to take a 4-3 lead with
Tim Shacklette scoring a goal with the help of
Kyle Gauthier at the 7:06 mark and
Mitch Haggart finishing the go-ahead goal as
Kevin LaHaie was credited with the helper two minutes later. Less than two minutes before halftime, Webber International would score once more and tie score up at 4-4. Despite AQ being outshot 24-10 in the half,
Clayton Boerigter was able to secure 20 saves to keep the Saints in it heading into the locker room.
The Warriors opened the second half with a goal to go back up by one, but Haggart came back at the 11:16 mark to score his second goal of the game after being assisted by
Jack Rioux. WIU responded with two straight goals to take the biggest lead of the game by either team at two. Continuing his great game, Sweet was able to notch a hat trick when he scored at 2:28 with the help of
Joey Fitzgerald to cut the deficit back to one heading into the fourth.
Webber International scored at 12:19 to take back the two-goal lead, but this would be the final scored by the Warriors in the game. Less than two minutes later, LaHaie took it upon himself to bring the Saints back with one on the unassisted goal. LaHaie then set up Sweet for his fourth goal of the game with three minutes remaining in regulation and eventually forced overtime. and then he assisted on another goal at 3:00 to
Zachary Sweet. The Saints put more shots on goal in the second half by a 21-15 margin.
There was a total of five shots taken in the first overtime period with WIU taking four of them. The AQ defense held up and was able to force a second four-minute overtime. Then in the second overtime, Jardis assisted Fitzgerald in a man up situation after a Warrior penalty as he fired the only shot of the period past the goalie at the 2:47 mark for the golden goal win for AQ.
The Warriors outshot the Saints 43-33 including a 29-18 shots on goal margin, but Boerigter came through for Aquinas by finishing with 21 saves. AQ had 18 ground balls compared to WIU's 15 and was also 18-21 on clears as the Warriors were 19-19. The Saints held a big lead in the face-off department, securing 15 out of 21 against the Warriors. Each team was able to score once on man up opportunities.
The Saints are back in action on Saturday (Feb. 26), when they travel to Saint Louis, Missouri for a game against Missouri Baptist. The game is set to begin at 12:00 PM.
