Dowling topples top-ranked Post in OT
Dowling College #1 Vito Demola gets congratulated by teammate #31 Joel Van Der Wal after scoring a goal to give his team a 5-3 lead over CW Post in the second period of an NCAA men's lacrosse game at Dowling Sports Complex. (March 26, 2011) Credit: James Escher
A significant change to the Division II landscape in lacrosse occurred Saturday. No. 5 Dowling defeated top-ranked, undefeated and two-time defending national champion C.W. Post, 8-7, in overtime.
The outcome added further intrigue to the very fluid NCAA playoff situation. With no conference tournament or automatic bid, only one or two teams from the ECC can hope to make the NCAA's. Dowling (6-1) made a big statement. Post (9-1) now finds itself in a precarious position as it meets streaking NYIT next week. Mercyhurst and Mercy also remain in the playoff picture.
"If you want to play in May, you've got to win these games," Post's Mike Messina said. Post has won 26 of 28 over the past two seasons. Both losses were to Dowling.
Host Dowling faced postseason peril until faceoff specialist Louis Riley pulled a lacrosse novelty by winning the draw and rushing the net to score the winning goal 12 seconds into overtime. Riley had just lost a critical faceoff that enabled Post's Eddie Plompen to tie the score with three seconds left in regulation.
"I can't believe I lost that faceoff and they came down and scored," Riley said. "I knew I had to come out guns blazing, go everything out."
There's no game plan for the faceoff man to score, but Dowling did not mind Riley's freelance move with their season potentially on the line.
"If they get the ball, we're going to take it away from them," Dowling's Vito DeMola said. "If we get the ball, we're going to do what we have to do. Lou just took it into his hands."
It was the first collegiate goal for Riley, a 5-9 sophomore from Smithtown. "I just came up and shot over the goalie's [right] shoulder," Riley said. "It went in. I was amazed it went in. I was so blown away, my heart was pounding after that."
Riley only converted on 5 of 16 faceoffs, well off his .744 percentage.
"People don't know how hard it is until you actually try it," he said of his position. "As long as we win that last [faceoff], I'll be happy. I had a bad day today, but I won the most important faceoff that really counted."
Post got off to a 3-1 lead in the first period, but Dowling scored four straight to take a 5-3 lead at halftime.
Messina's third goal of the game enabled Post to close within 6-5 with 3:40 left in the third period. But DeMola's third goal, with 3:35 left in regulation, gave Dowling a 7-5 advantage. Post's Nick Coric made it 7-6 with 31 seconds left before Plompen, Post's leading scorer with 31 goals this season, gave life to the Pioneers with his tying goal.
"I was very confident in overtime," Plompen said. "Once we made that run at the end, I thought for sure we'd win in overtime. We just needed one possession. We couldn't get it."
