The cold Sunday afternoon brought out hundreds of fans as the No.9 Saints took on the No. 13 Amherst College Lord Jeffs at Sandy McCallister Field. The Saints and Amherst started the game out strong, trading scoring opportunities which were stalled by outstanding defensive play by both teams and outstanding goaltending. Senior Goaltender Aaron Costello was a wall in net as he was able to fend off several early Amherst attacks, keeping the Saints in the game.
The contest remained a stalemate going into the first half with a score of 0-0. It was Amherst, however, that started out with the scoring. Just before the 70th minute of the game, a Saints penalty pinned the Saints deep in their defensive zone, putting the Lord Jeffs in striking distance for a goal. The initial shot was pushed aside by Costello, however Amherst was able to collect the rebound and put it past the Saints defense and Costello and take the 1-0 lead midway through the second half.
The Saints did not give up easily, as they quickly regrouped and delivered an onslaught of attacks against Amherst before finally capitalizing on one of their many scoring opportunities. About ten minutes after the Amherst goal, a throw-in opened up a scoring lane and ended up with Junior Forward Manny Collins redirecting the ball past the Lord Jeffs goaltender and evening the score at 1-1. The score gave the Saints momentum as they continued to keep up the pressure on Amherst. The future looked bright for the Saints following Collins’s goal, especially when Amherst was forced to play a man down when in the 95th minute, a player was ejected following his second yellow card. With the man advantage and the momentum of the late goal, the Saints looked to win it in overtime.
The extra frames did not yield any goals. Although the Saints were able to dominate the offense and outshoot Amherst 10-3 in the extra time periods, the Amherst defense held strong keeping the Saints attack at bay. With overtime over, it was time for a shootout.
After a strong performance in net, the Saints decided to put in shootout specialist, Junior Goalie Ryan Roethel. Amherst made a similar change, putting in their other goalie in hopes of securing a win. Making his second tournament appearance of the weekend, the Saints looked towards Roethel and their top strikers to seal the win. Senior Mark Provost, Sophomore Rob Brandell and Junior Harry Copeland were all stopped on their shots, however Senior Jeremiah Bunton and Junior Dan Hunt were able to capitalize on their scoring opportunities. Hunt and Bunton’s goals were not enough, however as Amherst was able to win the shootout, scoring 3 times to the Saints 2, as a result winning the game for the Lord Jeffs in the shootout.