No better time exists for any athlete when it is post-season time.
The fifth ranked Washington College men's lacrosse team entered the Centennial Conference championships last weekend with one thing on their mind: a conference title.
First, the Shoremen avenged their 15-14 double OT loss to Western Maryland in a 12-8 semi-final win over the Green Terror.
Next up, the Shoremen had to beat top-ranked Gettysburg College for the conference title and an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III championships.
Unfortunately, it was not to be for the Shoremen, who fell to the Bullets, 12-10.
After one half of play, the Shoremen were dominating the Green Terror in all aspects of the game. Washington held a 14-1 shot advantage, and more importantly, a 4-1 after 30 minutes.
In the third quarter, the Shoremen added four more goals, which were all unassisted. The Green Terror did not score until 28 seconds remained in this quarter.
In the final quarter, Western Maryland attempted to make a comeback, but the Shoremen would not allow it to happen. Within the first few minutes, WMC had cut the lead to 8-4. Washington answered these goals as sophomore midfielder Brent Renner and Eric Kuehn pushed the lead to 10-4 as 5 minutes remained.
The Green Terror quickly scored two more goals to cut the lead to 10-6, but senior Craig Rentch scored off a pass from freshman Jon Spivey at the 3:22 mark.
Rentch ended any hope of a Western Maryland comeback as he scored an unassisted goal 38 seconds after Western Maryland scored another two goals. In the end, the Shoremen won with a final margin of 12-8.
Rentch led the Shoremen efforts with four goals and one assist. Senior midfielder Brad Hopkins won 14 of his 18 face-offs in the effort. In goal for the entire game was freshman Alex Pirani. He made eight saves and had eight goals scored on him in 60 minutes of play.
Trying to avenge yet another regular season loss, the Shoremen were next matched up against the Bullets of Gettysburg in the conference finale. Gettysburg had fended off F&M, 7-6, to reach the finals.
Unfortunately, Gettysburg won the match 12-10. After the fact, the Bullets improve 14-1 and the Shoremen fall to 11-3 with the loss.
At the start, Gettysburg took an early 3-0 lead. The Shoremen fought back, however, as Kuehn and sophomore Steve Berger both scored with 7:48 and 7:14 left in the period, respectively. Senior attackman Jon Fellows assisted both of them with the goals.
Gettysburg then got on the board again as 4:37 remained. Rentch scored off a feed from sophomore midfielder Randy Vane as 3:03 was left on the clock. This gave the Bullets a 4-3 lead after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Bullets jumped ahead with their lead, but Fellows attempted to make a comeback as he scored at the 5:45 mark.
The Shoremen were able to pull even in the third as Kuehn and Rentch both scored. The game was tied at seven with four minutes remaining in the quarter.
Into the fourth, Washington grabbed their only lead of the game, which lasted for a mere 24 seconds.
Fellows scored off a feed from Rentch, but Gettysburg scored the next three goals to end any chance of a comeback.
Rentch scored four goals and assisted on another for a five point day. Fellows had two goals and two assists, while Kuehn had two goals and one assist. Berger scooped up eight ground balls and had one goal while Pirani made nine saves in the loss.
Tomorrow marks the final regular season game of the year for Washington as the Shoremen will travel to Salisbury, MD to take on long-time rival Salisbury.
The annual "War on the Shore" game proves to be an important one for Washington as speculation shows a WC win may very well result in one of the two at-large bids into the Division III National Championships.
Salisbury is currently ranked sixth in the nation, right behind the Shoremen, and the selection committee will announce the brackets later on Saturday night.
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