STAFF REPORTS
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BUFFALO — Brian Prunty scored with 6:43 remaining in the fourth quarter to break a 10-10 tie and lift Siena to an 11-10 victory over host Canisius in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men’s lacrosse action Saturday at the Demske Sports Complex.
Prunty paced a balanced Saints (2-10, 2-2 MAAC) attack was one of four players to score two goals as Keenan Cook, Ross Filtch and Chris Robertson all finished with a pair of tallies. Keeper Gage Ponsetti recorded five saves in goal for Siena, including three stops during the final six minutes of the fourth quarter to preserve the Saints’ one-goal advantage.
Junior Steven Coss scored three goals and added an assist to pace the Griffs (5-6, 3-1 MAAC). Senior Jeff Edwards dished out three assists while junior Ryan McKee recorded two goals and chipped in one assist. Junior keeper Liam Ganzhorn made seven saves for Canisius.
Prunty’s eventual game-winning goal served as the starting point for a wild final six minutes of regulation that saw the Griffs attempt seven shots, including a pair of tries in the final minute, but fail to record the equalizer.
Earlier in the contest, Canisius used goals from Vaccaro and sophomore Logan Monroe to counter an early strike from Siena and take a 2-1 lead, only to see the Saints rattle off five unanswered goals, highlighted by a pair of tallies from Filtch, in a 6:26 span to build a 6-2 lead.
Coss temporarily halted the Siena spurt, finding the back of the net with 14 seconds to play in the first to make a 6-3 game, but the Saints countered with goals from Cousin and Prunty to take their largest lead of the game, 8-3.
Canisius began its comeback before the break, as back-to-back goals from Kearnan trimmed the Siena advantage to 8-5 at intermission before tallies from Coss, McKee and sophomore Michael Sanzone tied the game at 8-8 with a little more than three minutes to play in the third.
Robertson and Cook restored the Siena advantage before the end of the frame, scoring 90 seconds apart to make it a 10-8 game head into the fourth.
Coss and McKee once again played provided the spark for the Griffs, with Coss scoring at the 11:50 mark and McKee finding the back of the net with 8:39 to play to tie the game at 10-all and set up the game’s frantic final minutes.
Canisius closes out the non-conference portion of its schedule Tuesday with a 7 p.m. contest at Robert Morris.
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