UMBC

Baltimore, MD—Freshman attackman Frank Resetarits converted a feed from Luke Daquino with 26 seconds left in overtime to propel visiting Albany (9-5) to a 9-8 victory over UMBC (6-8) in an America East semi-final game.

The third-seeded Great Danes will advance to take on top-seeded Binghamton in the league title game on Saturday in Binghamton, New York.

The game featured five ties and four lead changes as Albany went scoreless for nearly 20 minutes as UMBC built a 4-2 lead,  but the Retrievers did not score for nearly 32 minutes as the Great Danes rallied to take a 5-4 lead after three quarters. But the Retrievers awoke by scoring three goals in a span of 1:05 to take a 7-5 lead early in the fourth quarter. Sophomore attackman Brendan Mundorf, junior attackman Rob Cross and sophomore midfielder James Hyland got the goals, but UMBC could not hold the lead.

Albany’s Michael Solazzo and Brendan Russell scored on outside shots with 9:09 and 7:16 remaining in the quarter to tie the game at 7-7, and sophomore attackman Chris Martocchia scored his third goal of the game and gave UA the lead on an unassisted tally with 1:15 remaining.

But senior midfielder Pat Muston won the next face-off, and, after a time-out, Mundorf found Franklin Berry open on the right wing , and the senior midfielder beat Albany netminder Kevin Rae with 56 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

Muston, who won 16 of 21 face-offs, captured the draw to open the extra session, and Cross had an excellent chance to get the game-winning goal, but his shot from short range hit an Albany defenseman and the Great Danes retrieved the ball.

Daquino, who notched 3 assists on the night, eluded his defender behind the goal, and fed Resetarits beat UMBC netminder Kevin Cepelak from close range to give the defending champions a chance to defend against the upstart Bearcats.

Mundorf led UMBC with 3 goals and 2 assists, while Hyland and Drew Westervelt added 1 goal and 1 assist each, and junior midfielder Joe Cahill had a pair of assists. Cepelak made 9 saves for UMBC, while Rae stopped 7 Retriever effort, as the Great Danes outshot UMBC, 34-29.

It was UMBC’s fourth one-goal loss of the season, three of which have come to the other combatants in the league.