HARTFORD, CONN. — Skidmore ended the first half adding seven goals to take an 8-6 lead, then held off multiple second-half comeback attempts by the Trinity men's lacrosse team, as the Bantams fell 15-14 on Wednesday night at Tansill Muldoon Stadium. Sophomore Jake Connors led the offense with a career high of four goals, shooting 4-for-6 on net (66%) marking his first collegiate points, as well as first career hat trick.
With the loss, Trinity falls to 0-2 on the season, while Skidmore improves to 6-0.
The Bantams jumped out to a 3-0 lead with goals peppered across the starting lineup, with one from Andrew Bailey just five seconds into play, followed by Bo Page and Cam Elenteny. Skidmore would get on the board with a goal in the remaining five minutes of the first quarter to make it a two point game entering the second quarter, 3-1.
Two minutes into the second the Thoroughbreds would make it a 3-2 game. Trinity's Jay Ottomanelli would answer back just seconds later with an unassisted goal to bring the deficit back to a two point gap, 4-2. Skidmore would sneak two past Bantams goaltender, Jordan Opdahl, knotting the score 4-4 with 7:30 left in the half. Trinity lost grip on the lead as the Thoroughbreds jumped ahead adding three more goals. Bantams Collin McCarthy and Jake Connors would net a goal a piece to make it a one point game, trailing 7-6. With less than a minute remaining Skidmore's Nicolo Mazzocca would snag Skidmore's 8th goal, making it a two point game at the half, Bantams trail 8-6.
After three goals in just over a minute of play to start the third quarter the Bantams would snatch back the lead. Connors recorded his second, third and fourth goal to lift the Bantams to a 9-8 lead change to kickstart the second half. Skidmore would hold the Bantams at 9 as they tacked on four goals to finish out the quarter leading 12-9. Trinity heads into the fourth down by four.
The sides alternated back-to-back goals in the fourth quarter, Bantams netting their 10th and 11th goals coming from Bailey and Cobb to make it a 12-11 game. Followed by two Thoroughbreds goals to bring it back to a two point game 14-11. A man down goal from Ottomanelli, and a goal from David Burleson turned it back into a one point game, 14-13 with four minutes left in play. At the 1:24 mark Matt Pecora would take it upon himself to find a gap in the Thoroughbreds defense to knot the score 14-14. With a chance to send the game into overtime Skidmore would find an opening to clinch the winning goal with just 50 seconds remaining in the game.
For the game, the Bantams held a wide margin of 52-29 in shots and 38-28 advantage in groundballs. Trinity went 0-for-4 on the extra man to Skidmores 2-for-6. The Bantams had 17 turnovers to the Thoroughbreds 12. Junior Jordan Opdahl made four saves in the night.
Junior Hayden Shin won 9-of-15 faceoffs with a season-high 7 groundballs, while junior Dane Crowley won 12-of-16 with 6 groundballs.
Trinity will be back on now have a break of games for final exams, returning to action next Thursday, Mar. 14 at Vermont at 2 p.m.
