2017 Finals: Beasts 8, Coastals 7
The first two days of the Inside Lacrosse Epoch Committed Academy could not have gone much worse for the Big East Beasts, as they went 0-3 in conference play. Playoff Sunday could not have gone much better, with the Beasts rallying off three straight wins and capturing the 2017 division championship with an 8-7 win over the ACC Coastals.
The Beasts got off to a hot start in the title game, jumping out to a 3-0 nothing lead early and going into the halftime break leading 5-1 over the highly talented ACC roster. The Coastals made their comeback though, riding the hot play of Matt Moore (Virginia) and eventually taking the lead before the Beasts tied the game again with less than two minutes to play.
The teams traded possessions in the final minutes until the Beasts came away with an unbelievable winner. Luke Prybylski (Villanova 2016) intercepted a pass, drove down the field, and fired a shot. His shot hit the top of the pipe, ricocheted off the back of the goalie, and slowly rolled over the line to give the Beasts a lead with 15 seconds left.
Luke Prybylski finished with two goals for the Beasts. Gavin Garrity-Rokous (Georgetown), Owen Black (Villanova), Matthew Leader (Providence), Brendan Alt (Marquette), and Steven Peters (Villanova) rounded out the Big East scorers.
Leader was named the game's offensive most valuable player.
It was on the defensive end that perhaps the Beasts — coached by former Hopkins goalie Rob Scherr — made their biggest strides, with Villanova commits Owen Prybylski and Michael Clark having huge games as longpoles, terrorizing their defenders and coming up with important turnovers. Both goalies did their parts, with Gabe Stein (Marquette) making four crucial second-half saves and Tristan Wright (Denver) coming up with three. Stein was named the game's defensive most valuable player, while Owen Prybylski was given overall MVP honors for his fine performance.
As for the ACC, its undefeated run in the 2017 bracket came to a halt with the narrow title loss. Moore was the Coastal's most valuable performer, winning all eight face-offs that he took and coming up with an assist. Lucas Quinn (Syracuse) had a phenomenal game with two goals and two assists. Michael Drake (Notre Dame), Alex Trippi (North Carolina), Owen Seebold (Syracuse), Connor Morin (Notre Dame), and John Ryan Hallenbeck (Notre Dame) all scored one goal each. Goalie Alexander Rode (Virginia) had six saves in a half of action while Matthew Schmidt had four.
Semifinals: Coastal 7, Legends 6
The first 2017 semifinal featured a lot of penalties on both teams as the physical play dictated the action — and the tone — of the game.
In the end, ACC goalie Alexander Rode (Virginia) came up big in overtime, and his future teammate Ian Laviano scored the game-winning goal to send the Coastals to the championship game.
The Big Ten won the face-off in OT and called a perfect timeout to fend off the Coastals’ pressure. The enduring shot went wide, but it was backed up by the Rode, who outleted quickly to try and beat the substitution pattern.
The OT period expired with up-and-down action, but no shot found its mark. Snyder won another face-off for the Big Ten, and the Legends offense went to work. After two unsuccessful runs to cage they drew a penalty on longpole Jacob Walthour (Syracuse) — a slash on the helmet that gave the Legends the chance to win it all on man up.
However, Rode was up for the task again and saved a shot from deep and keyed the short-handed break. The ACC squad settled and probed with a few top-down dodges, but the game-winner was scored by Laviano — his third of the game — on a curl from X fed by Alex Trippi (North Carolina.
Coaches and players alike were very engaged, shouting instructions and encouragement throughout the first quarter as the Coastals took a slim 2-1 lead off of goals from Connor Morin (Notre Dame) and Laviano. Mike Shinske (Penn State) scored for the Legends in that period, sticking his shot with authority after a slow break.
A hotly contested game, both team traded penalties in lieu of goals as a two-minute unreleasable penalty yielded the Legends just one shot, but Coastals LSM Jared Fernandez (Syracuse) stuck a goal in transition after the penalty expired to make it 3-1 Coastals with just under gout minutes remaining in the half.
Another penalty on the Legends led to a fast-break goal from Hunter Graefe (Johns Hopkins), pulling the Big Ten squad back within one. A frantic finish to the half saw the Coastals with a chance to strengthen their lead, but Jacob Walthour's shot was saved at the whistle.
Colby Barker (Ohio State) opened up the scoring in the second half with a turnaround cannon shot that went off hip on goaltender Alexander Rode (Virginia). Barker was about 15 yards out and the shot stunned both benches. Less than a minute later Laviano cut through the crease for his second goal for the Coastals, extending their lead to 4-2.
The teams traded goals on transition scores to finish the third quarter as Matt Moore (Virginia) went down the middle of the field, butfFace-off man Kevin Snyder (Maryland) got one back on a nearly identical goal 10 yards out right before the period ended.
Owen Seebold (Syracuse) cut from behind the cage to finish a nice shot to extend the Coastals lead at the 8-minute mark in the fourth. The goal came after legends keeper Cole Touhey (Rutgers) made two great stops on fast breaks. The Legends defense regained their composure and made a big stop on the defensive end; Roman Puglise (Maryland) scored a bomb on the ensuing offensive possession that cut the Coastals lead to 6-5. The Legends would then go on to tie the game on a great right to left split by Bobby Burns (Penn State) with two minutes remaining in the game.
IL Epoch Committed Academy: Defense Leads Big East Beasts to 2017 Division Title