PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College men's lacrosse team dropped its home opener to Denison University on Tuesday by a score of 10-9 in double overtime. Fisher, ranked 13th in the United States Intercollegiate Association Division III Coaches Poll, fell to 1-1 on the year. Denison, ranked seventh in the national poll, moves to 2-0 this season.
Sophomore
Ian Evans led the Cardinals with three points (two goals and one assist) after earning Empire 8 Player of the Week for his performance in the season opener against Ithaca. Sophomore
Tucker O'Donnell netted his second-straight multi-goal game to start the season with two tallies. Junior
Joe Post, who was named to the USILA Division III Team of the Week earlier in the day, won 21 of his 24 face offs in the game.
Fisher came out of the game strong in a matchup between two teams that reached the round of 16 in last year's national tournament. Senior
Austin Jobson scored the opening goal just over two minutes in. O'Donnell then netted back-to-back scores to put the Cardinals up 3-0 early on.
After the Big Red got on the scoreboard, Evans set up
Jack Mulvihill for the goal in the opening minute of the second quarter to push the lead back to three. Denison would make it 4-2, however, the Cardinals responded with another 3-0 run with goals from Evans,
Jack Hyde and
Jordan Depetres to give Fisher its largest lead of the day at 7-2.
The Big Red would tally two goals in a row to cut the deficit to three and that looked to be it for the second half. But coming out of a time out called by Head Coach
Dave Dobbins with 10 seconds remaining, Evans started with the ball from behind the net and moved his way out in front to the goalie's right side. Without even looking at the net, the Lafayette native made an incredible shot that bounced off the ground and over the left shoulder of Denison net minder to make it 8-4 heading into halftime. The goal ended up being featured on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 plays as the number two play of the day.
The Cardinals offense stalled to start the second half as they watched the Big Red chip away at lead until the game was tied at eight a piece with over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. A few minutes later,
Nicholas Miller found
Samuel Miller who buried his shot to put Fisher back in front, 9-8.
Denison would knot up the game with under five minutes. In the final seconds of regulation, the Big Red took a shot but senior goal
Darin Eakins made the big save to send the game into overtime.
In the first four-minute sudden death overtime period, Post won the opening draw with
Matt Jeffries earning an important ground ball to give the Cardinals the early possession. The Cardinals threw multiple shots on but could not find the back of the net. Denison had an opportunity in the final seconds but its shot went wide.
The Big Red scored just over two minutes into the second overtime to hand Fisher its first loss of the season and its first at Growney Stadium since 2018.
Post gathered a game-high 17 ground balls. Defenders
Kyle O'Dea and
Kyle Rochester each caused two turnovers. Fisher heads to Morrisville State on Thursday for a 4 p.m. face off.
