Lubin, Palmer lead NYIT past Dowling

On the last day of winter, NYIT's lacrosse team made sure its NCAA Tournament hopes wouldn't end before the first day of spring. Without a conference tournament to amend for regular season losses, a defeat or two can all but eliminate an East Coast Conference team from post season contention.

Unranked NYIT was squarely on the bubble as it hosted third-ranked Dowling, which had won its first five games. NYIT prevailed, 10-7, and the team celebrated as if it had just clinched a playoff berth.

"We knew it was must win for us, it was pretty much our season, it was win or go home,'' attack Chris Lubin said. "We had to take care of business and that's exactly what we did."

Lubin and fellow attack Mike Palmer each scored three goals in a game that started well, rapidly deteriorated, but ultimately came under the control of a team desperate to prevail.

Palmer scored the game's first goal and NYIT (2-2) took a 4-1 lead after the first period. But the second belonged to Dowling as the Golden Lions scored five straight goals, two by Danny Abbene, to take a 6-4 lead at the half. "When we got the ball we threw it away pretty quickly,'' Lubin said. "We didn't control the ball at all for the second quarter.''

That led to a conversation at halftime by NYIT coach Bill Dunn. "We had to stop fouling and went back to fundamentals,'' he said. "We had to get as many ground balls as we could and maintain ball control. It's no secret, the more you have the ball, the less the other team can score."

NYIT goalkeeper Billy McGee had 21 saves.

NYIT had nearly perfect execution in the third period, scoring four times. Palmer, Joe Herman, A.P. Nist and Lubin tallied the goals. Palmer scored the first goal of the final period and NYIT was back in the postseason picture.

"We had to get our act back together real quick,'' Palmer said. "Now we have two wins back to back and we're getting it done.''

Four teams make the NCAA Tournament, but ECC commissioner Robert Dranoff said an expansion to eight teams is under consideration. But until that happens, these must-win scenarios may continue. Dowling will face top-ranked C.W. Post on Saturday and can ill afford a loss.

"We didn't handle the pressure well,'' Dowling coach Tim Boyle said. "We didn't clear the ball well. Our offense didn't have the chance to have quality possessions. We played one good quarter, you can't win a lacrosse game with one good quarter. We have to think about what we did wrong, fix it next week and move forward. I didn't consider it an upset at all. I think we're both strong programs.''