SALEM, Va. --- Hampden-Sydney College shocked top-seeded Roanoke College, 14-13, in overtime in the ODAC men's lacrosse tournament semifinals on Saturday afternoon in Salem, Va. The Tigers advance to their first ODAC Championship Game appearance since 2002 and will meet third-seeded Lynchburg. The game will be played at Roanoke College at 2 pm on Sunday.
Hampden-Sydney capitalized early on a Roanoke team that hadn't played in two weeks. Jake Koferl, Duncan Morris, and Abbot Wallenborn posted the first three goals of the contest midway through the first quarter. Roanoke ended their drought when Clarke Lewis found the back of the net at 6:50, and Josh Sibio cut the deficit to 3-2 at 4:49. Koferl scored his second goal of the quarter with just six seconds remaining.
Koferl completed the hat trick with the first score of the second frame at 13:48, but the Maroons quickly seized momentum eight seconds later off a Will Pilat goal. Joey Dishaw needed just 20 seconds to trim the deficit back to one goal, 5-4, and then Marquis Terrell tied the game at 12:03. Tyler McWilliams, Kevin Jackson, and Pilat scored the last three goals of the half as the Maroons finished off a 6-0 run to go into intermission ahead 8-5.
Roanoke extended the run to seven straight off a Chad Smith goal at 11:23 to make 9-5. Koferl and James Hughes tallied the next two to make it 9-7 at the 7:38 mark, but Colin Rossano put one in the back of the net at 2:39 to put the Maroons ahead 10-7 going into the fourth quarter.
Will Carter made it an 11-7 contest just 24 seconds into the fourth. Wallenborn posted one of his three fourth-quarter goals to help spark the comeback at 8:28, and Thomas Armstrong added one at 7:43 to cut into the lead 11-9. Michael Lintner scored nine seconds later off the face-off to try to stem the Tigers momentum, but it proved futile. Wallenborn scored again at 6:44, and Morris wasted no time to draw the game within one, 12-11, at 6:20.
Max Kraus won the ensuing face-off and Dishaw buried a turnaround shot into the top left corner to put the Maroons up 13-11 at 5:44. Roanoke won the next face-off, and Spencer Parsons had his shot go off the cross bar at 5:01. David Noftsinger stopped a shot at 4:17 and the Tigers gained possession. Armstrong fed Morris at 2:05 to get within one, 13-12. Roanoke goalkeeper Charles Pease was flagged for a one-minute slashing penalty, and the Maroons called a timeout. Koferl took the face-off off a Casey Bendall ground ball, and Wallenborn pocketed a man-up goal off a Mike Funk pass to tie the game with 1:26 remaining in regulation.
Koferl corralled the final face-off of regulation to give H-SC the final possession. Koferl's shot with 13 seconds left was blocked and another went high and out of bounds at the five-second mark. Fleet Jernigan got one last shot off just before the buzzer, but Pease narrowly deflected it out of bounds to send the game to overtime.
Roanoke won the opening face-off in overtime and called a timeout at 3:46. Kevin Jackson had his shot saved, but Steven Jackson picked up the groundball in front of the net and reeled off a wild, over-the-head, backwards shot to give the ball back to the Tigers. The Tigers cleared the ball and used their timeout at 2:41. Roanoke's pressure defense caused Hampden-Sydney to drop the ball, but Armstrong picked up the ground ball and found Hughes on a broken possession as he scorched the back of the net to win the game with 1:56 on the clock.
Wallenborn and Koferl each scored four times. Morris posted a hat trick, Funk dished out three assists, and Hughes contributed three points on two goals and an assist. Ned Bowden had seven ground balls and Bendall scooped up five. Noftsinger racked up 10 saves.
Tyler McWilliams and Joey Dishaw each had two goals. Tyler McWilliams had one goal and three assists, and Michael Lintner had one score and helped on two others. Kraus won 19-of-23 face-offs to go along with seven ground balls.
Roanoke held advantages in shots (43-34), ground balls (48-36), and face-offs won (22-7). The Tigers committed just 14 turnovers compared to 20 for Roanoke. The Maroons went 18-24 on clears while Hampden-Sydney was 22-23.
-- This release is courtesy of the Hampden-Sydney College sports information department. --