March 3, 2007

Box Score

Denver, Colo. - The Villanova men's lacrosse team came up short in its first game of the Pioneer Face-Off Classic in Denver, Colo. After 68 minutes of play, including two overtime periods, the Wildcats (1-2) fell to the Pioneers (2-2) by a final score of 12-11.

Senior captain Eric Heidenberger kicked off the scoring with his first of four goals just four minutes into the game. However, Denver only required a two minute block of time to take a 3-1 lead on back-to-back goals by Joey Murray, followed by an extra-man opporunity goal put in by Brad Richardson. A mere 30 seconds after Richardson's goal, Villanova midfielder Dan Liva was able to convert a pass from junior Tim Atkins to bring the Wildcats within one. Mike Haas, Tim Aktins, and Heidenberger then combined to score three more unanswered goals. Denver's Joey Murray was able to sneak one more goal past Villanova goalie Andrew DiLoreto to round out the scoring for the first period with the Wildcats edging the Pioneer's 5-4.

Villanova was able to increase their lead on two goals in the first two minutes of the second period. Junior Chris MacDonald notched an unassisted goal at the 13:08 mark. A quick six seconds later, senior Andy German took a pass from face-off specialist Chris Colliniates to give the Wildcats a 7-4 advantage. However, Denver's Joey Murray continued his scoring streak by collecting goal number four with help from teammate Michael Goltra. Goltra was then able to set up Ilija Gajic to slice the goal margin back to one. Villanova would go on to score four more goals to Denver's two, making the score 10-8 going into the fourth period.

Although Villanova held the lead at this time, the teams played evenly throughout most of the game with Denver holding a slight advantage in both shots (23-20) and groundballs(25-20) at the start of the fourth period. Heidenberger scored what would later prove to be Villanova's final goal of the game with just under six minutes left in regulation. From this point on, the Pioneers clawed their way back by capitalizing on three of their 14 shots for the period, including the tying goal at the 0:01 mark to send the game into overtime.

With the score tied at 11, both teams battled out the last eight minutes of play with hopes of notching the game-winning goal. However, with Villanova not even registering a shot in either overtime period, Denver's Dillon Roy took advantage of his one shot of the game and put the Pioneer's ahead for good.

Villanova is back in action tomorrow when they take on Air Force at 1:00 p.m. ET in Denver, Colo.