April 19, 2008
#4 Shoremen Rally Past F&M, 12-11
Kielek Scores Game-Winner with 1:15 Remaining

CHESTERTOWN, MD -- Junior attackman Jimmy Kielek (Baltimore, MD/Archbishop Curley) scored the game-winning goal with 1:15 remaining as fifth-ranked host Washington College rallied from a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat visiting Franklin & Marshall, 12-11, in a Centennial Conference men's lacrosse game tonight on Kibler Field at Roy Kirby, Jr. Stadium. The Shoremen improve to 12-1 overall on the year and finish the Centennial Conference regular season with a 7-1 mark in league play. The Diplomats fell to 7-5 and 3-4 with the loss.

Washington held a 3-2 lead early in the second quarter before F&M scored four unanswered goals to go up, 6-3, when Bobby Atkins found Mark Hild for a goal with 3:45 left in the half. The two teams then traded goals to make it 7-4, but WC senior attackman Kolyn Kirby (Chestertown, MD/Kent County) found senior attackman Chris Read (Baltimore, MD/Boys Latin) for a goal with 1.4 seconds left to trim the deficit to 7-5 at the break.

The Shoremen twice cut the lead to one goal in the third quarter, but F&M answered both times. The Diplomats opened the fourth-quarter scoring when Peter Moon scored with 12:36 left to give F&M a 10-7 lead. The Shoremen's rally started when junior midfielder Matt Moreton (Darnestown, MD/Northwest) scored off a feed from senior midfielder Nick Gregory (Riva, MD/South River) with 10:25 left to make it 10-8. Senior midfielder Andrew Generazio (Springfield, VA/West Springfield/Bridgton, ME) then scored with 9:44 left to make it a one-goal game, but Atkins found Hild to break up the spurt and make it 11-9 with 8:28 remaining.

The score remained 11-9 until the 5:56 mark when Kielek fed Kirby for an extra-man goal. The Shoremen then tied the score with 4:31 to play with another extra-man goal as Kielek fed Gregory to knot the score at 4:31. Kielek's game-winner came off an assist by Kirby, who was cutting around the back of the goal and found Kielek in front of the crease for the score with 75 seconds remaining. F&M won the ensuing face-off, but a Diplomat turnover caused by Washington senior defenseman Tim Prudente (Hereford, MD/Hereford) with 26 seconds left gave the ball back to Washington. The Shoremen cleared the ball and maintained possession until losing the ball out of bounds on the end line with seven seconds to go. A long Diplomat clearing pass was broken up and time expired before either team gained control of the ball as Washington came away with the win.

Read led all scorers with five goals in the game. His fifth came with 10:20 left in the third quarter and was the 150th of his career. Kielek added two goals and four assists, while Kirby had a goal and three assists. Gregory and Generazio each had one goal and one assist for the Shoremen.

Hild led F&M with three goals, while Atkins finished with two goals and two assists. Sean Oliver and Noah Wilkinsky added two goals and one assist each, while Shane Brennan had one goal and one assist.

Washington held a 46-32 advantage in shots in the game. Junior goalie Gordon Cohen (New Canaan, CT/New Canaan) made 17 saves for the Shoremen, while Chris Marcozzi made 15 for the Diplomats. The Shoremen won 16 of the game's 26 face-offs, led by a 7-for-8 performance from Generazio.

The Shoremen return to action next Saturday against Salisbury in the annual "War on the Shore" for the Charles B. Clark Cup. Game time is 1:00 p.m.

BOX SCORE