ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Roberts Wesleyan College men's lacrosse team entered Saturday's East Coast Conference showdown with Frostburg State ranked sixth in NCAA Division II in man-up percentage.
The extra-man unit came through again for the Redhawks as senior Hunter Lemieux scored 3:09 into overtime to give Roberts a thrilling 12-11 win over the Bobcats.
Lemieux took a feed from Michael Pierog at the left side of the cage and powered his way past the defense to deliver his fourth goal of the game and 26^th of the season as Roberts improved to 2-0 in the conference and a program-best 7-1 overall.
"I give all of the credit to Dan Doviak for drawing the penalty and our man-up group for moving the ball as well as it did," Lemieux said. "I saw the ball moving and just kept thinking one more (pass), one more, one more. It came to me, and I just went inside roll, bounce, five-hole. A classic move for me."
Redhawks coach Rocky Delfino was happy to have the ball in the stick of the program's all-time leader in goals and assists with the game on the line.
"If I had to bet my life on anybody, I'd put all of my money on that pair of sixes (Lemieux wears jersey No. 66) every day," said Delfino, whose team extended its win streak to four.
Roberts, which had a 46.9% success rate with the extra man prior to Saturday, went 2-for-3 against Frostburg.
Senior Nate Maloney scored three goals for Roberts and junior Reid Jackowski added two goals and three assists for the Redhawks. Jordon Deats contributed a goal and two assists while Pierog added a goal and an assist and Doviak scored a goal.
Sophomore Aidan Sheehan made a career-high 17 saves and graduate student Mitch Streety won 17 of 25 face-offs.
Roberts took an early 3-1 lead, but Frostburg rallied for a 5-5 tie at halftime. The Bobcats took an 8-6 lead into the fourth quarter before Roberts found its groove.
"Deep breaths," Streety said of the key to the comeback. "We just needed to slow it down and keep fighting."
Maloney and Lemieux scored in the first 4:37 of the fourth before Frostburg took a 9-8 advantage. Doviak, Lemieux and Pierog rattled off three straight goals to give the Redhawks an 11-9 edge but Frostburg countered with two goals in nine seconds with about 2:30 left to force OT.
Frostburg won the opening face-off in overtime and had a good look at a potential game-winner, but Sheehan came up with the save to keep the Redhawks in the game.
"I can't give enough credit to my defense," Sheehan said. "They have been working hard. This win is a big boost and I am just looking forward to the next game."
As are all of the Redhawks.
"We have just , a world of confidence right now," Streety said.
"This is just a team that keeps building," Lemieux said. "We have 25 guys and we ride with those 25 guys."
Roberts, which has already equaled the program best for wins in a season, returns to action next Saturday for a noon game against the University of District Columbia.