Harford Men’s Lacrosse Drops Heartbreaker, 6-5, to Monroe in Final Home Game

From the HCC sports desk:

BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford men’s lacrosse team dropped a heartbreaker, 6-5, to No. 7 Monroe on Wednesday afternoon at Harford Stadium. The Fighting Owls (6-11) led, 5-4, with less than a minute-and-a-half left, but Lantz Carter would knot the score at the 1:12 mark. The Tribune (11-4) saw itself with a minute-long extra-man opportunity, which the Owls would successfully kill, but Nate Delone would fire one past Harford freshman goalie Bryan Burrill (Forest Hill, Md./C. Milton Wright) with one second remaining on the clock to give Monroe the 6-5 win.

Freshman Andrew Gilpin (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) led Harford with three goals on the day and Burrill corralled 18 shots, while Carter totaled two goals for the Tribune and Matt McShea made eight saves between the pipes.

Monroe bested Harford in nearly every statistical category, holding a 45-13 advantage in shots, controlling 54 ground balls to the Owls’ 38, committing 26 turnovers to Harford’s 36 and winning 10 of 13 face-offs, but Harford led in the most important area, on the scoreboard, until the waning seconds.

The Owls jumped to a 2-0 lead by the end of the first quarter, thanks to goals by freshmen Miles Dance (Edgewood, Md./Joppatowne) and Gilpin, at the 8:17 and 6:40 marks, and would double their lead in the second as sophomore Chad Palmer (Fallston, Md./Fallston) and Gilpin notched two more goals with 11:12 and 9:36 remaining to give Harford a 4-0 lead.

Nearly seven minutes would pass before the Tribune finally got on the board thanks to Joe Matison’s goal at the 2:53 mark. Carter would add his first tally of the day about two minutes later as he scored with 1:06 left in the first half to cut the Harford lead to two.

Both teams would see man-up chances in the third, but neither would convert in a period that saw the Harford defense thwart a game-high 15 shots. Burrill was especially stingy in the cage, stopping eight shots.

Burrill did allow one to get by him, as Nick Mooney connected at the 2:41 mark to cut the Monroe deficit to one, 4-3.

Harford would bring the advantage back up to two goals as Gilpin connected just 1:15 into the fourth on an extra man opportunity, but Monroe would cut the lead back to one, 5-4, just a few minutes later as Mark Dwyer scored with 11:50 to go.

Both teams would see two more man-up chances but neither would score until Carter connected at the 1:12 mark to knot the score at five. Monroe would see another extra-man opportunity following its goal but would attempt just one shot as the Harford defense successfully killed the man-up advantage only to see Delone fire the game-winning goal with one second left on the clock.

The Fighting Owls will continue competition with postseason regional play as they travel to Howard on Tuesday for the 3:30 p.m. Region XX Play-In.

Lacrosse Game Summary (Final)
The Automated ScoreBook For Lacrosse
Monroe vs Harford (Apr 22, 2009 at Bel Air, Md.)

Monroe (11-4) vs. Harford (6-11)
Date: Apr 22, 2009 Location: Bel Air, Md. Stadium: Harford Stadium
Attendance:72 Start time:3:30 pm End time:5:13 pm Total time:1:43

SCORE BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
————————————-
Monroe………….. 0 2 1 3 – 6
Harford…………. 2 2 0 1 – 5

Monroe SCORING: GOALS: Carter, Lantz 2; Dwyer, Mark 1; Delone, Nate 1;
Mooney, Nick 1; Matison, Joe 1.
ASSISTS: None.

Harford SCORING: GOALS: Gilpin, Andrew 3; Palmer, Chad 1; Dance, Miles
1.
ASSISTS: Kenny, Branden 2; Palmer, Chad 1; Taylor, Steve 1.

Monroe GROUND BALLS: Horeth, Eric 8; Delone, Nate 7; Smith, Andrew 6;
Davis, Colin 5; Gray, Alex 4; Houtenbrink, Jason 4; Skidders,
Sawentanon 4; Kleehammer, Tyler 3; Nadler, Justin 2; Nash, Ian 2;
Neri, John 2; Carter, Lantz 1; Dwyer, Mark 1; Fox, Remmington 1;
Haight, Bryan 1; Konko, Jeff 1; Mooney, Nick 1; Rubino, Scott 1.

Harford GROUND BALLS: Turner, Luke 6; Hanzelka, Craig 5; Harrell,
Russell 5; Fike, Chad 3; Taylor, Steve 3; Burrill, Brian 2; Copper,
Tristen 2; Dance, Miles 2; Keesey, Scott 2; Kenny, Branden 2; Palmer,
Chad 2; Rosenklde, Joe 2; Crenshaw, Jake 1; Gilpin, Andrew 1.

Monroe TURNOVERS CAUSED: Houtenbrink, Jason 4; Horeth, Eric 3; Carter,
Lantz 2; Delone, Nate 2; Davis, Colin 1; Dwyer, Mark 1; Fox,
Remmington 1; Gray, Alex 1; Konko, Jeff 1; Neri, John 1; Skidders,
Sawentanon 1; Smith, Andrew 1.
Harford TURNOVERS CAUSED: Fike, Chad 4; Turner, Luke 4; Keesey, Scott
1; Stevenson, Brent 1; Taylor, Steve 1; TEAM 1.

SHOTS – Monroe 45; Harford 13.
SHOTS ON GOAL – Monroe 24; Harford 13.

PENALTIES – Monroe 4/3:30; Harford 5/6:00.
MAN-UP OPPORTUNITIES – Monroe 0-4; Harford 1-4.

TURNOVERS – Monroe 26; Harford 36.

FACEOFFS – Monroe 10-13; Harford 3-13.

CLEARS – Monroe 18-21; Harford 23-32.

GOALIES – MONR: McShea, Matt 11-4 (60:00 minutes, 13 shots-8 saves, 5
GA); HCC: Burrill, Brian 6-11 (60:00, 24-18, 6).

Start time: 3:30 pm Finish time: 5:13 pm Length of game: 1:43
Officials: Michael Ventura; Kevin Forrester; Stewart Martinez. Scorer:
Tim Conway.

A-72 T-1:43