Center Valley, PA (April 14, 2007) – The DeSales University men’s lacrosse team surrendered a 7-3 lead and dropped its third straight game, 12-11, in overtime to The University of Scranton in an MAC Conference game on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Fasching Fields.

 

        The Bulldogs fall to 7-5 overall and 2-4 in the MAC with the loss, while the Royals improve to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the MAC.  DSU took a 7-3 lead in the second period before Scranton scored five unanswered goals to end the second quarter and begin the third to take an 8-7 lead.  The Royals scored four at the end of the second quarter in a span of 1:48 to tie the game at seven and took the early second half lead at the 6:25 mark of the third period.

 

        DSU rallied to take a 9-8 lead but Scranton scored three straight following DSU’s first second-half lead to pull ahead by an 11-9 score.  Sophomore Matthew Brancaccio (Greenvale, NY/North Shore) led a late Bulldog rally that made it 11-10 with 7:31 to go and junior Dan Thomer (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Ryan) tied the game at the 6:46 mark.  DSU had the ball and a chance to score at the end of regulation but was unable to connect and the game went into overtime.

 

        In the overtime, Scranton won the face-off and controlled the ball throughout the extra period getting off two shots, the second of which, by Dan Stallone, went into the net giving UofS the road victory.  DeSales out-shot Scranton, 42-36, while Scranton held a 44-40 edge in ground balls.  Both teams won 13 face-offs in a very evenly matched game.  DSU hurt themselves with penalties committing 14 as compared to just four for Scranton leading to six extra man goals for the purple and white.

 

        Brancaccio led the DSU scoring with three goals and two assists for five points.  D. Thomer had two goals and assist for three points and sophomore Joshua Van Hart (Glen Gardner, NJ/Voorhees) had three goals.  Freshman Adam Eddinger (Bally, PA/Boyertown) totaled two goals, sophomore Danny Larkin (Holladay, UT/Olympus) had one goal and one assist and junior Sam Gobeli (Baltimore, MD/Archbishop Curley) had one assist and picked up a team-high nine ground balls.

 

        Freshman Jarryd Stamatelos (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill West) was once again stellar in goal making 21 saves in the loss.