There was March Madness at Quinnipiac on Saturday, however it was not basketball. The Quinnipiac Men’s lacrosse team beat the Stony Brook Sea Wolves with a game winning goal by freshman midfielder Josh “The Franchise” Murray. Murray certainly earned his nickname yesterday.
With the score tied at 11-11, Murray raced down the field all alone and fired a shot with 2.7 seconds left to go in the game to give Quinnipiac their first win in the conference.
In front of a packed crowd the Bobcats won their first game at Quinnipiac this season. The back and forth game ended in a fitting fashion. With 1:37 gone in the first quarter Stony Brook cracked onto the scoreboard with a goal by Adam Markberry. That lead ended quickly when freshman midfielder Chip Schmidt scored on an unassisted goal less then a minute later.
Murray’s partner in crime on Saturday was Senior captain John Giordano who add 4 goals of his own. With Giordano’s first goal coming at 8:12 putting Quinnipiac up 2-1, the goal was assisted by Murray. Andy Pelletier extended the Bobcats lead to 3-1 at the 7:55 mark assisted by Chip Schmidt.
The Sea Wolves recaptured the lead with three straight goals in three minutes, two of which came by Stony Brook’s Jason Cappadoro, ending the scoring for the first quarter
Murray started off the scoring in the second quarter with an unassisted game-tying goal at the 12:44 mark making it 4-4. After two back and forth goals by both Quinnipiac and Stony Brook, the Sea Wolves scored another three goals in a row making the score 8-5. Two of those three goals were scored in the beginning of the third quarter.
The Bobcats quickly retaliated with four straight goals, three of them coming in the third quarter regaining the lead. The goals were highlighted by two goals each from the tandem of Murray and Giordano.
The Sea Wolves scored their first goal in the fourth quarter with a goal by Sean Farrell assisted by Cappadoro tying the game at 9-9. A minute later, Giordano scored his fourth and final goal of the game assisted by Murray, making the score 10-9. Pelletier added to the lead with a goal at the 6:57 mark, assisted by Schmidt.
Kevin Shea of Stony Brook brought the Sea Wolves back into the game with two straight goals slipping past Bobcat goalie T.J Barnett (18 saves) tying the game at 11-11 with 40 seconds left.
Murray saved the day with 5.3 seconds remaining on the clock.
Murray started his trek down the field and with 2.7 seconds left he netted the game-winning goal.
When asked about what was going through his head as he was sprinting down the field the modest Murray said, “I knew how much time was on the clock because I looked back as I was running and I didn’t want to shoot the ball too early so I tried to time it just right and it seemed to work out.”
His teammates are well aware of his potential and are certainly pleased he rose to the occassion.
“The goal was his coming out party. I mean we call him “The Franchise” because he is an exceptional player and has a lot of potential, but that goal just showed he’s the kind of player that can take over a game and hopefully it will be the beginning of a lot of big moments for him,” said senior captain Barnett.
This win puts the Bobcats at 1-1 in the America East conference and 2-6 overall. Despite the difficult start this win should undoubtedly boost the morale of the team.
Says Barnett “with the young team it was tough to lose those games early, then to lose our first conference game the way we did, this shows our guys that we can play with the teams in our division and we can beat them.”
This Friday the Bobcats will head down to New Jersey to face #3 Princeton. Although it will be a daunting task there are some important keys to remember when playing a team of Princeton’s caliber says Barnett.
“The best way to present problems for them is not allow them to have the ball. We need good ball position and to capitalize on our chances.”
With those keys the recharged Bobcats are in good position to keep their short streak alive.
