Middlebury, Vt. - May 11, 2016 - The Springfield College men's lacrosse team knocked off ninth-ranked Middlebury College, 11-10, in a triple overtime thriller in the NCAA Division III Championship First Round at Alumni Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

With the victory, Springfield, which made its ninth-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament after clinching the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship this past weekend, advances to play St. Lawrence in the second round on Saturday, May 14. afternoon. The Saints were victorious in their NCAA First Round matchup with New England College, defeating the Pilgrims 25-2 on Wednesday afternoon.

Graduate student Dylan Sheehan (Massapequa, N.Y.) led all players with four goals and an assist in the win, including the game winner with 2:40 left in the third overtime. Sophomore goalkeeper  Jake Reynolds (Scituate, Mass.) was outstanding between the pipes for the Pride as he notched a career-best 19 saves in the win, and junior midfielder Ty Daugstrup (Rocky River, Ohio) posted a goal and a career-best four helpers.

Freshman midfielder Jack Gould (Prides Crossing, Mass.) led Middlebury with four goals, while sophomore John Jackson (Hood River, Ore.) went 15-for-25 from the face-off "x" and picked up a game-best eight ground balls. In net, junior goalkeeper Will Ernst (San Francisco, Calif.) posted 12 stops in the setback.

The two sides were even through a majority of the statistical categories throughout the game, as each picked up 34 ground balls, while the Panthers held a slight 50-43 advantage in shots.

Middlebury netted the game's first goal just 2:03 into the game when Tim Giarrusso (Hingham, Mass.) found the top shelf for an unassisted marker before Gould strung together consecutive strikes just 1:18 apart to push the hosts' lead to 3-0.  

Junior midfielderBrendan Dooley (Setauket, N.Y.) delivered Springfield's first goal of the afternoon on an unassisted strike at the 8:16 mark, only to have the Panthers answer right back 46 seconds later on a marker from JP Miller (Wellesley, Mass.).  

However, Springfield's offense began to find its rhythm and pumped in the final two goals of the half to head into the break trailing the Panthers, 4-3. Sheehan started the scoring after he buried a feed from Dom Abate (Beverly, Mass.) with 5:44 on the clock before Daugstrup took a Tom Hurley (Goffstown, N.H.) pass and blistered a shot from 10 yards out with 1:36 left in the stanza. 

Reynolds was the difference in the first half as he totaled 10 saves to keep the Panthers attack at bay, which outshot Springfield 25-13 in the first 30 minutes of action.

The teams combined for eight goals in a hectic third quarter that featured 23 shots, as Sheehan got free inside and took a pass from Abate for an easy catch-and-finish goal to tie things up at four, before Tony LaGuerre (Shrub Oaks, N.Y.) gave the Pride its first lead of the game 5:02 into the stanza to make it 5-4, Springfield.

From there, the Panthers rattled off a pair to regain its one-goal lead, but Duncan Preston (South Portland, Maine) evened the score once again after finishing a feed from Joey Raniolo (Yorktown, N.Y.) to make it 6-6 with 7:29 left in the third.

Jackson won the ensuing face-off and found the back of the net, before LaCroix earned the next possession for the Pride, which was capped on a Hurley strike just 23 seconds after Jackson's goal to keep it a tied game, 7-7.

With 2:44 left in the frame, Sheehan tallied his third of the game to give the Pride an 8-7 advantage heading into the final quarter.

Gould found twine just 2:07 into the fourth, before the Pride roared back with a pair of goals from Kevin Dean (Westhampton, N.Y.) and Abate to make it 10-8, Springfield, with 10:44 to play.

Showing off its resiliency, Middlebury tallied goals with 4:22 and 1:18 left in the game to even the score at 10 apiece, and sent the game into overtime.

After two scoreless overtime periods of back-and-forth play, the Pride finally prevailed when Daugstrup found Sheehan for his fourth goal of the game, giving Springfield the 11-10 win and advancing the Pride to the Second Round.