DOYLESTOWN (Pa.) – The Delaware Valley University men's lacrosse team scored three goals in the final five minutes of regulation to earn a thrilling 12-9 non-conference victory over visiting Immaculata University on Wednesday night.
The two teams went back and forth all night in a game that featured six ties and three lead changes and entered the final stanza knotted at 9-9.
The Aggies (2-5) held the Mighty Macs (2-5) scoreless for the fourth quarter behind four big saves by Aidan Purcell who came on in relief of starting keeper Jim Murphy, and stellar play by the defense that forced four turnovers in the frame.
The offense broke through with just 4:20 left in the game as Brett Ziegler shot one from straight away on a man-up opportunity that found the top corner and proved to be the game-winner as DelVal went ahead, 10-9. Just over two minutes later Brandon Keller added his third of the game to give the home team its largest lead of the night, and shortly after, Ziegler potted his third of the evening to secure the 12-9 victory.
The game began with an Immaculata goal less than a minute in, but the Aggies responded as it forced a failed clear and went back to work on offense where Ben Napieralski set up Keller for his first of the game. DelVal took its first lead with 9:42 left in the first quarter when Travis Berman potted his second of the season.
The rest of the first quarter was fast paced and back-and-forth, and saw a total of eight goals as the team's went into the second all square at 4-4.
The Mighty Macs jumped on the Aggies early in the second with two goals separated by one minute to take a 6-4 lead, their largest of the contest.
The teams exchanged goals again before Lucien St. Onge closed the half with his fifth of the season to pull DelVal back to within one, 7-6, at halftime. The Aggies held an 18-10 advantage in shots on goal for the first half and won 13-of-15 faceoffs with a 22-15 advantage in ground balls.
Immaculata regained its two-goal advantage early in the third quarter as attack man Steve Long forced a turnover next to the DelVal cage and potted an easy one to make it 8-6. The rest of the stanza was all Aggies as they scored three in-a-row and held the Mighty Macs off the board for the next 12 minutes to set up the late-game dramatics.
DelVal doubled-up the visitors with 34 shots on goal to just 17, and 48 ground balls to 24 while going near perfect on clear attempts (10-for-11). Nick Matthew dominated the faceoff x with 21-of-23 wins and set a single-game program record with 16 ground balls, breaking the record of 15 set by Bryan Thompson in 2020. His 21 faceoff wins was one shy of tying another program best.
Keller led the offense with four points on three goals and an assist and added two ground balls and two caused turnovers. Ziegler finished with three goals, three caused turnovers, and two ground balls. Napieralski notched three points on a goal and two assists, while Berman had two goals and an assist. St. Onge potted two and Evanick scored one to round out the scoring for DelVal.
Murphy got the start in goal and made three saves in 23:50 while Purcell played the final 36:10 and recorded five saves and two goals against.
Long and Inserra combined for seven goals to lead Immaculata and Cole Metzger made 22 saves between the pipes.
