Comeback Effort Falls Short as Men's Lacrosse Drops 10-9 Decision at Furman

Saturday, March 17

Greenville, SC

12:00 p.m.

University of Richmond

4-4, 1-1SoCon

Furman

1-6, 1-0SoCon

RICHMOND

Furman

Comeback Effort Falls Short as Men's Lacrosse Drops 10-9 Decision at Furman

03/17/2018 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

By: Matt Moretti III (@Moretts13)

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The University of Richmond men's lacrosse team (4-4, 1-1 SoCon) battled back-and-forth with Furman (1-6, 1-0 SoCon) all afternoon but a third quarter burst from the Paladins proved to be just enough to sneak past Richmond, 10-9.

Mitch Savoca and Mitch Goldberg each tallied two goals and an assist while five others contributed goals to the cause as the Spiders attempted to erase a four-goal deficit in the fourth quarter.

"I thought the story of the game today on our end was we played hard but simply failed to execute," head coach Dan Chemotti said. "Whether it was game plan or fundamentals we had our chances. I give credit to the Furman kids and coaches for making the plays they needed to win the game. Their goalie and face off unit were difference makers in the game and overall their team played very hard. Hopefully we'll learn how important every seemingly small play is over the course of four quarters."

Furman was first on the board, pretty quickly, notching the first score of the game just 12 seconds into the action but Richmond didn't take long to respond. Freshman Mitch Savoca worked his way through the defense and fired home his seventh score of the season to tie the game at the 13:41 mark. From freshman to redshirt senior, Mitch Goldberg was next to get on the board. He found his opening with 6:16 to play in the first and pushed the Spiders ahead for the first time. That lead would hold through the end of the quarter.

Once again, Furman was first to score in the second quarter. The Paladins tied the game with 13:56 to play in the half and moved back ahead with their third goal of the game at the 9:29 mark. With 7:16 to go, Furman picked up a penalty and the Spiders capitalized with a man-up score from Austin Brown to tie the game then took the lead just over a minute later with Nathan Emery's first of the season.

The scoring barrage however did not end there. Furman came right back and scored twice at the 4:03 and 3:22 marks to move back ahead, 5-4. Like an old school boxing match the counter punches just kept on coming. Michael Reale canned his second goal of the season and Ryan Lee followed less than a minute later to give Richmond another lead with 1:17 to play. Furman did not let that lead stand though as it added one more in the closing seconds of the half to send this game to the locker rooms tied, 6-6.

The Spiders struggled to get settled into the third quarter. The Paladins quickly netted three goals in the first five minutes of the frame to move ahead, 6-9. By the end of the quarter Richmond would trail, 10-6.

Richmond could have rolled over after such a one-sided third but it did just the opposite. Teddy Hatfield got things started with his 16th goal of the season at the 10:23 mark. Savoca followed with his second of the game three minutes later and Goldberg followed at the 6:57 mark to culminate the quick, 3-0, run for the Spiders.

Rob Schotta was charged with a slashing penalty with 5:44 to go, giving Furman a man-up chance but his teammates fought that off to keep the deficit at just one. The Spiders came up with another stop with under two minutes to play in the game and called timeout with 1:30 on the clock to set up a potential game-tying chance. Unfortunately for the Spiders, Furman was able to come up with a stop in the closing moments to secure victory.

Next up for the Spiders is a date with High Point at Robins Stadium next Saturday (Mar. 24). Richmond will be in search of SoCon win number two in the first of four remaining home games on the regular season schedule.