Jake Tellers scored with 4:22 remaining in the fourth quarter to break a 12-12 tie and propel Quinnipiac to a 13-12 victory over Canisius in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men’s lacrosse action Saturday at the Quinnipiac Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium in Hamden, Conn.
Tellers was one of three Bobcats (3-2, 1-0 MAAC) to record a hat trick on Saturday as John Delucia and Trevor Douglas finished with three goals each in the victory. Steven Germain dished out three assists to go along with two goals for a team-high five points while face-off specialist Demitri George went 17-of-28 at the face-off X for Quinnipiac.
Redshirt sophomore Colin Kelly paced the Golden Griffins (0-6, 0-1 MAAC) attack with six points on a game-high four goals and two assists. Junior Keegan Kozack notched four points as he finished the afternoon with two goals and two assists while Freshman Kevin Carney posted his second hat trick of the season. In goal, sophomore Tommy Kunz matched his season high with 16 saves.
Knotted at 12-all with less than five minutes to play in regulation, Tellers put Quinnipiac back in front as he was able to create separation from a Canisius defender before placing a low shot past Kunz from 10 yards out.
On its next possession, Canisius was able to put a pair of shot attempts on target, but Bobcats keeper Nick DiMuccio was able to deny both before a Griffs turnover ended the threat.
Canisius was able to force a shot-clock violation on Quinnipiac’s final possession, giving it the ball with less than 20 seconds to play. The Griffs were denied an opportunity at a final look, however, as the Bobcats forced a turnover during the clear attempt to hang on for the one-goal victory.
Earlier in the contest, Quinnipiac used goals from three different players during the opening 4:58 of the second quarter to break a 3-3 tie and grab a 6-3 advantage.
Kelly would trim the Canisius deficit heading into the break, completing his first-half hat trick with under a minute remaining in the second quarter to make it a 6-4 contest at intermission.
The Griffs carried the momentum from Kelly’s late strike into the start of the third as it notched the first three goals of the frame to take a 7-6 lead.
The teams exchanged tallies midway through the stanza before the Bobcats used tallies from Donnery and Douglas to close out the scoring in the frame and take a 9-8 lead heading into the fourth.
Sophomore Patrick Mitchell tied the game for Canisius with a man-up goal in the opening minute of the fourth, only to see the Bobcats respond with a pair of tallies just 90 seconds apart to regain the lead, 11-9.
Canisius had an answer, using goals from Carney and Kozack to knot the score at 11-all with a little more than nine minutes to play in regulation.
Germain put Quinnipiac back in front with his second of the afternoon at the 6:25 mark of the fourth, but Kelly netted his fourth of the game on a diving effort with just under five minutes on the clock to bring the teams level once again, setting the stage for Tellers’ game-winning goal.
Head Coach Mark Miyashita‘s Post Game Comments
“Today was our most complete effort as a team of the season. Unfortunately, we’re still making a few little mistakes in all phases of the game that are haunting us over the course of 60 minutes and keeping us from getting a win. We have to be able to clean those areas up and not be on the short side of a one-goal game in conference play.
“I hope we learned that you have to compete and be engaged for 60 minutes. Winning is really, really hard, especially in our conference. It doesn’t come easy, and it’s going to take minimizing those mistakes to be on the right side of the scoreboard. Hopefully, today we learned a good lesson about competing the way we did, but we needing to tighten up and minimize mistakes over the course of 60 minutes. That is the next step for this group.
“The guys are starting to gel well on the offensive end of the field overall, but we’ve got to be able to put the ball in the back of the net when we have good opportunities to do so and we didn’t capitalize on those today. Our man-up offense had been had been solid all year for us and today, it wasn’t. That’s a huge thing in one-goal game. We got to get on point with your communication when we’re playing in those scenarios and not be playing on our heels and instead, playing for and with each other.”
Game Notes
• Quinnipiac outshot Canisius by a 48-34 margin for the contest, highlighted by a 14-6 edge in the third quarter.
• Canisius was 1-for-6 in man-up opportunities while Quinnipiac was 2-for-6.
• The Griffs committed a season-low 10 turnovers in the contest while Quinnipiac was charged with just eight miscues.
• Canisius played its first one-goal game of the season Saturday and its 18th under during Miyashita’s six-season tenure at Canisius (9-9).
• Kelly recorded his fourth hat trick of the season with his four-goal effort on Saturday.
• The six points by Kelly matched his career high in that category, set against Robert Morris on March 9, 2022 (5g/1a).
• Carney notched his second hat trick of the season with his three-goal performance on Saturday.
• Kozack’s four points on Saturday represented a season high as he finished with three or more points in a game for the third time this season. The four points also matched a career high for the junior attackman (fourth time).
• Kunz has recorded double-digit saves for the fifth time this season as he recorded 16 saves for the fourth time in six contests in 2023.
Up Next
Canisius returns home Tuesday to host Little Three rival St. Bonaventure in a 7 p.m. contest at the Demske Sports Complex.
The game is part of a men’s and women’s doubleheader as the women’s team squares off against Robert Morris in their home opener at 3 p.m.
For all the latest updates on Canisius men’s lacrosse, be sure to follow @GriffsMLax on Twitter and Instagram.
All WNY is made possible thanks to coffee and sleep deprivation.
We appreciate your readership. We like money, too.
