Two of the nation’s remaining five unbeaten teams battled on Tuesday afternoon but it was Big East foe Providence College upending Quinnipiac 13-12, in a non-conference matchup at the Quinnipiac lacrosse and field turf complex.
Providence (5-0) the only Big East school without a loss earned its fifth consecutive win, and scored 3 fourth quarter goals before running out the clock in the waning minutes to hand Quinnipiac (3-1) its first loss of the season. Senior JT Weber led the Friars with a game-high six points on three goals and three assists. Sean Wright scored four goals.
With Quinnipiac leading 12-11 with 7:49 left in regulation, the Friars tied the game with 4:38 left and found the game-winner. After a Friar goal early in the fourth quarter, Basil Kostaras put Quinnipiac back on top, 12-11, with 7:49 showing on the clock. Providence found the game-tying goal with 4:38 remaining and then manufactured the game-winner with just over three minutes to play. The Friars came up with the ensuing faceoff and managed to run out the clock for the victory.
Sophomore Michael Sagl led the Bobcats with another five-point outing, as he scored three goals and added two assists. It was the West Islip, N.Y. native’s third straight game with at least five points.
Senior captain Kostaras netted two goals, corralled two groundballs and recorded an assist, while sophomore Matt Diehl finished with two goals, three groundballs and two caused turnovers. Leo Horine, Dylan Webster, Pat Corcoran, Jay Binkowski and Tom Gilligan each added a goal. Webster collected a game-high 11 groundballs.
Sagl netted the first goal of the game at the 11:54 mark of the first quarter to jump out to an early 1-0 lead. The Friars responded with a goal as Michael Noyes scored to tie the game at 1. After Binkowski gave Quinnipiac a 2-1 lead Providence responded with with five straight goals and took a 6-2 lead just four minutes into the second quarter. Quinnipiac head coach Eric Fekete called a crucial timeout in a critical part of the game that seemed to have Providence in control. Following the timeout, the Bobcats answered with three consecutive goals from Sagl, Corcoran and Webster on the man-advantage to cut the Friars lead to one goal. Each team added a goal before halftime where the Friars led the Bobcats 7-6.
Over the next half of the third quarter, the Bobcats scored four of the game’s next six goals to take a 9-8 lead on Horine’s goal with 9:40 left in the third. Both teams traded a pair of goals to close out the quarter and Quinnipiac led 11-10 heading into the final frame.
The Friars tied the game at 11 with just over 11 minutes left in regulation, Kostaras gave Quinnipiac a 12-11 lead 7:49 left in regulation but the Friars answered with two goals to win the game. Providence tied the game at 12 apiece with 4:38 left and found the game-winner just over a minute later at 3:08. Quinnipiac could not come up with the ensuing faceoff and the Friars ran out the clock to end the game.
Providence outshot Quinnipiac, 38-34, grabbed one more groundball, 36-35, turned it over four fewer times, 11-15, and snatched a 17-11 advantage in the circle. The Bobcats played a man down for 6:30 seconds on seven infractions, compared to 3:30 seconds on four infractions for Providence. PC went 3-for-7 on the man-up and QU went 3-for-4.
Reigning NEC Defensive Player of the Week, goaltender Gill Conners, stopped 10-of-23 shots while Providence netminder, Jack Connelly, made four saves.
Prior to today, Quinnipiac had won four of the last five meetings between the two schools.
The Bobcats return to the turf on Saturday when the host intrastate rival Hartford at the Quinnipiac lacrosse and field turf. Faceoff is slated for a 12 p.m.
