Down 5-2 at halftime, the Drew University men’s lacrosse team rallied to tie their game with two minutes left in regulation before Brian Windisch (‘25) scored the golden goal in overtime to defeat Goucher College 12-11 in a Landmark Conference thriller in Ranger Stadium on Senior Day, Saturday, April 23 .
With the win, the Rangers keep their playoff hopes alive as they improve to 3-3 in the Landmark Conference and 9-6 overall. Meanwhile, the Gophers fell to 1-5 in the conference and 2-13 overall.
From the get-go, Windisch was fired up as he scored both the Rangers’ goals in the first half. Down 1-0 halfway through the first period, Windisch caught a quick pass from Craig Wilkie (‘23) before firing a shot past the kneeling goalie. Later, after falling behind 5-1 with less than two minutes left in the half, Windisch made a stunning goal where he circled around the back of the goal before wrestling free from a Gopher defender, spinning around and getting off a blind shot that miraculously passed the Goucher goalie to make it 5-2.
In the second half, the rest of the Rangers offense came alive and combined to outscore Goucher 9-6. At 9:36 in the third, Windisch sent a high pass to Mike DeMayo (‘25) who made a leaping catch and sent in a jump shot to score the shorthanded goal. DeMayo would add two more goals in the period, including a crucial unassisted goal at 2:07 to tie the game up at 7-7.
Halfway through the fourth quarter and with a man advantage, DeMayo scored his fourth of the day with a shot that made it past three defenders and the goalie. Forty seconds later, Charlie Collins (‘25), who scored with a man advantage in the third, added another man-up tally to get the Rangers within one.
With less than five minutes left, Wilkie scored two key goals, first netting the game-tying goal at 4:47 to make it 10-10, before again tying things up at 2:04 with a shot over the head of the goalie to ultimately send it to overtime.
In overtime, the game remained deadlocked for the first three minutes as neither team gained much traction on offense. Then, with the Gophers threatening to score, an errant pass made it all the way to midfield where Kyle Weeks (‘23) managed to coral the contested ball and dumped it off to Windisch, who fired right between the goalie’s legs to seal the victory for Drew.
GJ Nazziola (‘24) had another big day in the circle for the Rangers, winning 16 of 25 faceoffs while picking up 11 ground balls. In goal, Anthony Tufaro (‘22) was solid for the Rangers, stopping 12 shots en route to earning his second win while classmate Jack Tynan (‘22) collected five ground balls.
The Rangers have just one game left in the regular season as they head to Selinsgrove, Pa. for a crucial Landmark Conference matchup with Susquehanna University this Saturday, April 30 at 1 p.m.
