Foxboro, Mass. - Vito DeMola's four goals
with two assists led the Golden Lions to their first ever Men's
Lacrosse Division II National Championship and name him Most
Outstanding Player. The No. 4 seeded Dowling (13-2) finished
with an 11-10 win over the No. 3 seeded Limestone College Saints
(17-2).
The Golden Lions built a 4-0 lead in the first half shuttng the
Saints out of the first quarter for the just the second time this
season. DeMola opened the scoring with an unnassisted goal in
the third minute of play. Brendan Hayes found Michael Brennan
who buried it in the net with just over four minutes left in the
quarter.
Back to back scores from Tom Cleary and John Amato, both assisted
by Hayes, gave DC a 4-0 lead with 6:30 left in the half.
Cleary found the corner of the net with an underhand shot off a
quick pass from Hayes. After a LC shot goes wide, Hayes
caused a turnover and found Amato in transition who found the net
just before being knocked to the turf. The Saints rallied
back for three unaswered goals to close out the half behind the
Golden Lions by just one (4-3).
The Saints caught up to the Golden Lions at the 11:02 mark in the
third quarter with a goal from Anthony Starnino. Senior
Matthew Muzio put Dowling back on top with his eleventh goal of the
season that landed just inside the far post. Limestone got
two goals in just over a minute for a 6-5 advantage. With
3:29 remaining in the third quarter, a extra man opportunity saw
DeMola feeding Kevin McElhone inside to tie up at 6. The Saints
anwered back at the 2:03 mark to take a 7-6 lead into the fourth
and final quarter.
Dowling didn't trail long, three minutes into the fouth quarter
DeMola netted his second goal of the day and Billy Richardson came
around from the back of the cage to fake a pass to the wing shooter
and found the back of the net to give the Golden Lions a lead that
they would hold onto for the remainder of the game. Three
consecutive DC scores extended the lead to three (11-8).
Danny Abbene took a pass from DeMola and found the to corner
inbetween DeMolas third and fourth goals of the afternoon. The
Saints turned in back to back scores to reach within one with under
two minutes remaining.
In the final 30 seconds the Saints fired off three shots on goal
with two just wide and Dougherty came up big with his final of six
saves as Matthew Lauria scooped up the ball as the final seconds
ticked down capturing Dowling's first NCAA Men's Lacrosse National
Championship.
Seven Golden Lions contributed goals with Hayes dishing out three
assists.
Dowling's defense turned in a outstanding performance holding the
Saints scoreless through the first 21:30 to start the game, their
longest drought of the season, was anchored by Lauria with three
caused turnovers and six ground balls.
At the line, Louis Riley won 14 of 25 face-offs.
For the Saints, Starnino and Corey Rich had two goals a piece
Provided by the Dowling Sports Information Department.
