Jonathan Gill scored the game winning goal 2:17 into the second overtime on Friday afternoon, to help the No.3 Genesee Community College men's lacrosse team defeat No.2 Community College of Baltimore County Essex, 15-14.
Genesee trailed 6-3 after the first quarter but rallied to score the only four goals of the second quarter to take a 7-6 lead into the half. Gill started the scoring in the second period with a goal, his second of the game, just one minute in to get GCC back to within two. Pete DiLaura followed just ten-seconds later after he collected a ground ball off of the faceoff and walked in on the Essex defense to get Genesee to within 6-5. Christian Reiller tied the game at six with his 28th goal of the season before Saxon Weil gave the Cougars a 7-6 lead with just under a minute left in the opening half.
Essex responded early in the second half and scored four consecutive goals in the first eight minutes of the third quarter to take a 10-7 lead. The Cougars then took advantage of a three-minute Essex penalty and scored three man-up goals to tie the game at ten. Luke Grahnert started the scoring and Marcus Palvino and Gill followed. Reiller then gave Genesee back the lead at the 12:25 mark before Essex tied it at 11 apiece with less than a minute to play in the third.
Essex broke the tie early in the fourth quarter, scoring 3:04 into the final period, but Gill got the goal back just ten-seconds later for GCC to tie the game at 12. Essex then took advantage of a Genesee penalty and scored a man-up goal at the 4:48 mark to take a 13-12 lead. After five-minutes of scoreless play, Reiller scored his third goal of the game to tie it at 13 with just over five-minutes to play. The Cougars took the lead at the 11:41 mark when Reiller assisted Nick Gray with his 11th goal of the season, but with just four-seconds remaining and a man-up, Essex tied the game at 14-14 to send it into overtime.
In the first overtime session, goalkeeper Brady Lawrence came up with one of a number of big saves on the afternoon to keep Genesee alive. The Cougars nearly ended the game with less than a minute to play in the extra session, but a Reiller shot went just over the top of the CCBC-Essex net.
(Goalkeeper Brady Lawrence comes up with a big save in overtime to keep GCC alive)
In the second overtime, both teams had a chance before Gill collected a ground ball rebound and beat the Essex goalkeeper to give Genesee the win.
Gill finished with five goals and one assist and Lawrence made 23 saves including four in the overtime sessions.
Reiller added three goals and three assists, Palvino finished with two goals and five assists, Grahnert also added an assist with his goal and Chris Rabung, Tyler Skowronski, Gray, DiLaura and Weil all finished with a goal apiece.
Johnny Astrologo led the team on defense with five takeaways and four ground balls.
(The GCC men's lacrosse team rushes the field to celebrate Jonathan Gill's game winning goal in the second overtime to life the Coguars over CCBC-Essex)
The Cougars improve to 9-1 on the season and will travel to Mercyhurst North East on Wednesday for a 4 p.m. start.
