University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
11-5, 6-1SoCon
Air Force
15-2, 7-0SoCon
Spiders Fall In OT To #12 Air Force, 9-8, In SoCon Championship
05/07/2016 | Men's Lacrosse
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – After three years, one thing is for sure about the University of Richmond men's lacrosse program. The Spiders are for real.
On Saturday, they once again put that on display, battling 12th-ranked and top-seeded Air Force to the wire, but dropped an overtime heartbreaker, 9-8, to the Falcons in the SoCon Championship game. The game featured five ties and three lead changes.
In three seasons, Richmond has 28 wins, three championship game appearances and one NCAA Tournament berth. Only other four programs in the country can boast those numbers in their first three years at the Division I level.
“Obviously right now, we're all hurting. Our guys played their hearts out. They laid it all on the line and I'm proud of their effort. Right now, we are all just focused on our seniors and making sure they know how much we love and appreciate them,” Head Coach Dan Chemotti said.
Junior J.P. Forester led the Spiders offensively, posting his third consecutive hat trick and leading the way with four goals and two assists for a season-high six points. Classmate Jean-Luc Chetner had the other multi-goal performance of the day with two goals and two assists.
Defensively, the Spiders were excellent once again, limiting a potent offense attack and forcing Air Force into double-digit turnovers for just the fourth time all year. Richmond won the ground ball battle, 26-23, with Austin Cates and Brendan Hynes combining for nine on the afternoon to lead the way.
“We laid it all on the line. We just came up a little short today. It's tough to really focus on anything, but our seniors right now. Those guys have been here since day one and really led the way since our program started,” Forester said.
Air Force jumped out to a 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the contest but Forester and Chetner scored within four minutes of each other to give Richmond it's first lead at 2-1 with 5:54 to play in the first.
The Falcons answered in the final five minutes of the period to even things up at 2-2, but once again the Spiders responded with two goals of their own to take a 4-2 lead with under four to play in the half.
The back and forth battle continued as the Falcons got two goals in the final 3:55 of the half to send the teams into the break tied at 4-4.
In the third, Forester took a beautiful feed from A.J. Lapitino on a fast break and found the back of the net for his third goal of the day and a 5-4 Richmond lead.
Air Force turned it on at the end of the third and started a four-goal streak that gave the Falcons their largest lead of the game at 8-5 with 10:03 remaining.
Once again, the resiliency and toughness of the Spiders was put on display. Forester took a feed from Chetner just under the eight minute mark for his fourth goal of the game. Just under two minutes later, freshman Ryan Lee found the back of the net for a man-up goal to bring Richmond within one.
With under three minutes remaining on the clock, Chetner took a great pass from Forester and ripped it home to even the score.
Richmond would threaten in the final two minutes, but Air Force's nationally ranked defense was able to hold them off and send the game into overtime.
The Falcons got possession early in the overtime period and never gave it up, allowing Andrew Tien to score the game winner less than a minute into overtime.
Forester, Hynes and Hatfield were named to the All-Tournament team.
Richmond's five seniors (Alex Hatem, Tom Monzo, John Atkinson, Corey Palmer and Tyler Batesko) were vital parts of the success of the Spiders over the past three years.
