LATROBE, Pa. (May 4) – The Saint Vincent College men's lacrosse team secured a trip to the Presidents' Athletic Conference championship game with a 10-7 victory over Westminster College on the UPMC Field turf.
Facing a one-goal deficit at halftime, the No. 2 seeded Bearcats (13-1) outscored the No. 3 Titans (10-5) 5-1 over the final 30 minutes to punch their ticket to Saturday's PAC title game.
Playing in his final career game at UPMC Field,
Tyler Condrasky led SVC with four points, on three goals and one assist.
Jordan Billet, the reigning PAC Offensive Player of the Week, totaled three points, on two goals and one assist, while
Brady Beard,
Caleb Hawkins,
Andrew Coholich,
Alec Richard and
Jacob Crumling each registered goals in the win.
Defensively,
Brody McMahon had a monster game, gathering 10 ground balls with five caused turnovers. Beard, who went 11-for-16 on faceoffs, picked up six ground balls, while Mac Schuler and
Ethan Cavin each finished with two caused turnovers.
Noah Sperling made 11 saves in goal for the win.
Beard got the Bearcats off to a hot start, taking the game's opening faceoff to the net to score SVC's first goal just 10 seconds into the first quarter. Thirty seconds later, Coholich potted an unassisted goal to give SVC a two-goal lead less than a minute into play.
After the early barrage, the pace of play slowed, with Westminster scoring its first goal of the day with 5:48 left in the opening quarter on a man-up opportunity. Condrasky's first goal of the day, scored with 4:17 remaining in the quarter, gave the Bearcats a 3-1 lead, which is how it would remain at the close of the frame.
The Titans cut it to a one-goal game with 12:43 left in the second quarter, but Richard and Hawkins each scored in a 20-second span to push the Bearcat lead to 5-2 with 11:34 left until halftime.
Westminster would then take control over the latter stages of the second quarter, scoring four unanswered goals to take a 6-5 halftime lead.
With 9:03 left in the third quarter, Billet scored his first goal of the afternoon to tie it at 6-6, before a goal from Condrasky with 5:12 left regained the lead for SVC. The Bearcat defense kept the Titans off the board for the duration of the third quarter, and the hosts entered the final frame with a 7-6 lead.
The duo struck once again in the opening stages of the fourth quarter, with Billet scoring with 9:05 left in regulation and Condrasky 25 seconds later to give SVC a 9-6 advantage. The Titans struck with 7:20 left to again pull to within two, but Crumling put the game out of reach with 4:40 left on a goal assisted by Billet to account for the final score.
Over the decisive second half, the Bearcats outshot the Titans 26-12, while Sperling made seven saves in the final two quarters.
The win was Saint Vincent's second over Westminster on the season, following a 14-9 triumph at UPMC Field on April 13, while it also avenged SVC's 11-10 home loss to Westminster in the 2019 PAC semifinals.
Up next, Saint Vincent will make its first ever trip to the PAC title game on Saturday, May 7, traveling to top-seeded Grove City to play at a time TBA.
