Emmitsburg, Md. (March 31, 2010)-Mount St.
Mary's withstood a late Sacred Heart rally to post a 9-8 victory at
Waldron Family Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. Sophomores
Brett Schmidt (Great Mills, Md./St. Mary's Ryken)
and Jake Willertz (Severn, Md./Mount St. Joseph)
each had two goals to pace the Mount in the win.
The Mount (4-2), winners of four straight, scored with 2:53
remaining to take a 9-5 lead over the Pioneers. Sacred Heart,
however, rallied with three straight scores to cut the Mount lead
to 9-8 with 28 seconds left.
The Mount won the ensuing face-off, but turned the ball over
with 17 seconds on the clock. The Pioneers worked the ball to
leading scorer Timmy Katz, but his low shot was stopped by Mount
goalkeeper T.C. DiBartolo (Bowie, Md./Archbishop
Spalding) with 1.8 seconds remaining.
The Mount scored four unanswered goals in the third quarter to
break a 4-4 tie and take control of the game. Kyle Yates
(Solomons, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) converted an Eric
Ososki (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) pass just under
four minutes into the second half to give the Mount a 5-4 lead.
Cody Lehrer (Baltimore, Md./Dulaney) fired a
shot past Sacred Heart goalkeeper Tom Trgo with 4:30 left in the
third quarter to push the advantage to 6-4. It was Lehrer's
team-leading 20th goal of the season.
The Mount then scored twice in the final 1:03 of the third
quarter to take a four-goal lead. Bryant Schmidt (Great
Mills, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) scored from the outside to
make the score 7-4. The Mount got possession and worked the clock
to the end of the quarter where Brett Schmidt beat the buzzer on a
pass from Scalley for an 8-4 lead.
Sacred Heart's Bryan Badolato cut the Mount lead to 8-5 two
minutes into the final quarter and the scored remained that way
until Scalley scored with 2:53 left in the game. Scalley scored
into an empty net as Sacred Heart was pressing to regain control by
doubleteaming with the goalkeeper.
Katz scored with 2:17 left to start the Pioneer comeback to cut
the deficit to 9-6. The Mount had a chance to seal the win, but
Scalley's shot to an empty net with just under two minutes left hit
the post.
The Pioneers got the ball back and Evan Morgan scored with 1:24
left and Katz with 28 seconds on the clock to set up the final
plays of the game.
Eight of the Mount's nine goals in the game were scored by
sophomores with Brett Schmidt and Willertz each scoring twice while
Ososki, Yates, Bryant Schmidt and Lehrer each had one goal.
Scalley, a freshman, posted the Mount's other goal.
DiBartolo was again solid in the cage for the Mount, tallying 13
saves in the game. Sacred Heart held a 32-to-29 advantage in shots
and a 32-to-26 edge in ground balls. The Mount's man-down defense
held Sacred Heart scoreless in seven extra-man opportunities in the
game.
Sacred Heart was paced by Bryan Badaloto's two goals and an
assist and Katz's two scores. Trgo made 10 saves in the loss.
The four-game win streak is the longest by a Mount team since
the 2006 squad won five games in a row. The Mount is now two games
over .500 for the first time since finishing the 2003 season with a
10-8 record. In addition, the 4-2 start is the best start to the
season by a Mount team since the 1999 team also went 4-2 over the
first six games of the year.
The Mount returns to action on Saturday when it travels to No.
10 Lafayette for a 1:00 p.m. game.
