Dave Malone (Penfield/Penfield) scored with 41 seconds left in the first overtime to lift the St. John Fisher College men's lacrosse team to a 12-11 win over visiting Rochester Institute of Technology on Wednesday at Fisher's Growney Stadium.
The win marks the first time Fisher has defeated a nationally-ranked team in the program’s seven-year history. R.I.T. entered today's contest ranked 19th in latest www.laxpower.com poll after downing No. 3 Ithaca College last week.
Fisher (8-2 overall, 3-2 Empire 8) led 11-8 early in the fourth quarter, but R.I.T. scored the next three goals, including two in the final 2:30 of regulation to force overtime. The Cardinals, however, persevered, and after forcing an R.I.T. turnover with less than a minute left in overtime,
Malone scored his fourth goal of the game off a pass from
Mike Cortina (Binghamton/Binghamton).
“This is obviously a big win for our program and it’s what we’ve been working to accomplish,” says head coach
John C. Johnson, who has led Fisher to a 27-17 over the last three seasons. “With Sunday’s win over Stevens and today’s win over R.I.T., we feel as though we have this program headed in the right direction.”
Fisher jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 8-4 at intermission, but the Tigers scored two goals in the first 2:41 of the second half to get back in the game.
Jason Cirulli (Webster Schroeder/Webster) scooped up a team-high eight ground balls, while
Jon Cortina (Binghamton/Binghamton) stopped 11 shots.
Fisher will return to action one week from today when the Cardinals travel up East Avenue to take on 11th-ranked Nazareth College. The Golden Flyers suffered a 21-5 loss to SUNY Cortland today.
