Joe
Lustgarten scored 3 fourth-quarter goals |
Stony Brook, N.Y.- Senior Joe Lustgarten (Wading
River, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) capped a furious UMBC rally with
the game-winning score with 55 seconds remaining and added an
insurance marker 21 seconds later as No. 3 UMBC defeated No. 2
Hartford, 15-13, in the America East Conference semifinals at Stony
Brook's LaValle Stadium.
The Retrievers (7-7) advance to their first championship game
since 2009, where they will face No. 1 Albany, a 1715 winner
over No. 4 Stony Brook.
Lustgarten led the Retrievers with four goals and two assists,
while senior attackman Scott
Jones (Port Coquitlam, B.C./Terry Fox) and freshman
midfielder Pat
Young (Ewing, N.J./Christchurch School) added three goals
each for UMBC. Junior face-off specialist Phil
Poe (Harwood, Md./DeMatha) won 22 of 29 face-offs in the
game, including 10 of 11 in the fourth quarter.
"Down the stretch, when it counted, these guys stepped up and
won a big, tough ballgame against a very good Hartford team," said
head coach Don Zimmerman "We have worked hard this year.
In the last six minutes…, the team we believe we can be and
are,showed up and got us the win."
UMBC trailed the Hawks, 13-9, after Hartford's Jared Franze
capped a 4-0 Hawk run with a score at the 10:18 mark of the fourth
quarter. But Poe would win the final six face-offs of the game to
turn the tide back to UMBC.
Lustgarten broke the drought with his second goal of the day
with 5:46 remaining. Just 81 seconds later, the Retreivers had cut
the deficit to 13-12, as senior attackman Matt Gregore (Crofton,
Md./South River) and Jones scored in a span of 29 seconds.
The Hawks committed a penalty with 2:30 remaining, and Young
took advantage, dodging a man at the top and bouncing a shot past
UH goalkeeper Frank Piechota to knot the score at 13-all with 2:01
remaining.
Lustgarten, who scored a career-high five goals vs. Hartford in
2012, was not to be denied in the final minute. On the game-winning
goal, he dodged from behind the left side of the net, got to the
middle and bounced a shot past Piechota.
Poe controlled the ensuing draw, but the ball was knocked away
along the sideline. Lustgarten won the ground ball battle, drove in
and scored the insurance goal with 34 seconds to play.
UMBC senior midfielder Dave
Brown (Coopersburg, Pa./The Hill School) added two goals
for UMBC. Hartford (7-7) was led by freshman attackman Jack
Bobzien, who scored five goals.
UMBC controlled play for much of the first half, as the
Retrievers controlled 9-of-13 face offs and outshot the Hawks,
24-17. UMBC got out to a 3-1 lead after one quarter, as junior
midfielder Will
Fejes (Solomons, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) scored his first
career goal to break the ice 3:53 into the game. Brown and Young
added scores for the Retrievers, and Young's score occurred with 12
seconds to play in the first stanza .
The Retrievers would extend the lead to as many as four goals,
on Young's second goal of the half, as UMBC took a 7-3 advantage
with 2:06 to play in the frame. But Hartford took advantage of a
late Retriever foul, and scored an extra-man goal with 18 ticks
remaining in the half and sliced UMBC's lead to 7-4 at the
break.
But Hartford outscored UMBC, 5-2, in the third quarter. The
Hawks took their first lead of the game at 9-8 late in the quarter,
before Jones knotted the game at 9-9 after 45 minutes.
The Retrievers avenged a 15-14 overtime loss at Hartford on
March 30.
