(Ann Arbor, MI) Concordia Men's Lacrosse hosted the third ranked team in the NAIA, University of the Cumberlands on Saturday afternoon. Concordia jumped out to an early advantage, before the Patriots scored four straight to take the lead. Concordia responded with four unanswered of their own, but conceded a goal late to send the game into overtime. Cumberlands scored with five seconds remaining in overtime to win the game, 7-6.
Evan Stuart led the Cardinals offensively with his second hat trick in as many games to start off the season. Sam Bowling accumulated 20 saves in front of the net for the Cardinals. Hunter McCarty led Concordia in assists with three.
The Cardinals drew first blood with a goal from Andrew Simmons off of Hunter McCarty assist. The Patriots evened things up shortly after before Travis Wright hit a shot right as the shot clock expired to give Concordia the one goal advantage after the first quarter.
Cumberlands quickly tied the game back up on their first possession of the second. The rest of the quarter was closely contested as only one more goal was scored in the remaining 13 minutes. It was Cumberlands who was able to take their first lead of the game and go into halftime up a goal.
The Patriots scored just over three minutes into the half, and then scored another on a man up opportunity to improve their lead to three. Evan Stuart beat his defender and netted an unassisted goal to bring the deficit back to two.
Concordia opened scoring in the final quarter when Travis Wright found Spencer Guppy to make it a one score game. Evan Stuart then evened the game back up with a goal for the Cardinals with over eight minutes remaining. It was then Stuart again with his third goal of the game to give Concordia the lead. Two minutes later Cumberlands was able to tie it back up at six and force the game into overtime.
The Cardinal defense forced a shot clock violation from the Patriots attack on the first possession of overtime. Cumberlands then committed a penalty on defense, giving Concordia an extra man opportunity, but the Cardinals were unable to take advantage. The Patriots then scored with five seconds remaining to win the contest.
Next up for the Cardinals will be another home Saturday match on March 4th. Concordia will host Midland at 1:00 pm at Ferry Field at Cardinal Stadium.
