Rams Rally to Defeat Morrisville
Farmingdale State - 9, Morrisville State - 8
Farmingdale, N.Y. - With a 5-5 tie score at the half and the Morrisville State Mustangs (0-4) scoring the first two goals in the second to go up 7-5, Farmingdale State (1-5) rallied to score four straight and defend their home turf for a 9-8 victory in a non-conference men's lacrosse game in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Freshman attacker Joey Stroessenreuther (Bethpage, N.Y.Bethpage) began the Rams rally with an unassisted goal with 19 seconds remaining in the third period. At 11:05 in the fourth, senior attacker Joe Meola (Rocky Point, N.Y./Rocky Point) made a pass to junior attacker Sean Maxwell (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) for the easy look in front of the cage. Three minutes later, freshman attacker Eddie Rifice (Babylon, N.Y./Babylon) rolled around the cage for the unassisted go-ahead goal to put Farmingdale up 8-7 with 9:42 left to play. Stroessenreuther scored an insurance goal, the eventual game-winner, with 6:43 on the clock for the 9-7 lead.
Morrisville would not go down without a fight, as freshman attacker Tim Bobbett (Cazenovia, N.Y./CBA) would make it 9-8 off a pass from freshman midfielder Eric Stein (Oswego, N.Y./Oswego). With a couple turnovers by each team as the clock ticked away and the Mustangs were trying to tie things up, tough defense with caused turnovers by Farmingdale sophomore defender Philip Dichiara (East Rockaway, N.Y./East Rockaway), junior goalkeeper Teddy Leone (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) and freshman defender Jonathan Prophete (Freeport, N.Y./Freeport) secured the victory for the Rams first win of the season.
Leone finished with 10 saves for Farmingdale State, while freshman goalkeeper Jeremy Hunt (Bourne, Mass./Bourne) made 15 saves in defeat. The Rams won 15-of-21 faceoffs in the game and picked up 41 ground balls to Morrisville's 32.
Farmingdale State will now face Briarcliffe College on Wednesday night, April 2nd at 7:00 p.m. before opening up their conference schedule on Saturday, April 5th at home against Richard Stockton at 1:00 p.m.
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