BROOKVILLE, N.Y. – Sophomore
William Snelders ripped a left-handed shot just under the crossbar just over one minute into overtime to help the LIU Post men's lacrosse team take down defending national champion and current No. 1/1 ranked Merrimack College at Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium on Saturday, March 9.
Along with the upset of the nation's top squad, one Pioneer had a record-setting day individually as senior faceoff specialist
Connor Farrell set two NCAA Division II records inside the circle. Farrell finished 34-of-37 on faceoffs snapping the previous record of 31 faceoffs won by Davis & Elkins College's Kyle Durec on in 2017. Farrell collected 30 ground balls on his 34 victories, shattering the previous record of 27 ground balls by Pfeiffer University's Cody Lamond, also in 2017. Both marks are an NCAA-best across all three divisions this season and Farrell now owns the top-three single-game ground ball marks in Division II in 2019.
Snelders tallied a team-high five goals on 10 shot attempts. Freshman
Jake Gillis added three goals and junior
Nick Grassa found the back of the net twice. Seven other Pioneers tallied one goal each. On the defensive end, senior
Bryan Ochs made 11 saves between the pipes and the Pioneers dominated on the ground, collecting 45 ground balls to just 21 for the Warriors.
LIU Post found the back of the net twice during the first 63 seconds of the game to jump out to an early advantage, though the lead was quickly erased as Merrimack leveled the scoring moments later. Farrell ended the opening frame with a bang, winning a faceoff and streaking downfield to score his first goal of the season to give LIU Post a 5-3 advantage after 15 minutes.
Merrimack got within one goal midway through the second quarter (7-6) before the Pioneers scored two unanswered to push the lead back to three goals (9-6). A late Warrior goal made it a two-goal game at 9-7 at the conclusion of the first half.
The Pioneers continued to hold off every Merrimack counter throughout the third quarter, rattling off three unanswered goals in 1:51 to give the Pioneers the Green and Gold its largest lead of the afternoon, 13-9. It was not until the fourth quarter when the Warrior pressure finally broke through.
With 12:14 remaining, Charlie Bertrand beat Ochs to spark a 4-0 run in less than four minutes, pulling the Warriors even with the Pioneers, 14-14. The Warrior run concluded with a tally during the final minute, giving Merrimack its first lead of the day, 16-15 with 27 seconds remaining. Farrell was up to the task, however, and won his 33rd faceoff of the day to give LIU Post possession and head coach
Eric Wolf called timeout to set up the offensive attack for the final possession.
Out of the timeout, Snelders started with the ball on the far sideline and muscled his way to the front of the cage before firing a top-shelf shot into the back of the net to force overtime.
Farrell continued to dominate in the circle to start overtime, winning the most crucial faceoff of the day to give LIU Post possession and once again, Wolf called timeout to draw up the offensive attack. In nearly the same play, Snelders started on the far flank and fought off a defender to rip shot into the back of the net, sending the Pioneers into a massive celebration with the 17-16 victory against Merrimack, snapping the Warriors' 16-game win streak in the process.
The Pioneers open East Coast Conference play on Wednesday, March 13 at Saint Thomas Aquinas College. Game time is set for 4:00 p.m.