The #5 Lions hosted the #1 Harford Fighting Owls in a rematch of last years NJCAA National Championship Finals. The Lions entered the matchup coming off of a competitive matchup against #6 Anne Arundel while Harford is coming off of a decisive win against Carrol. This game was not only a rematch of last years National Championship Finals for these two teams but could very well be a preview of whats to come in the torunament this year. The Lions came out the gate aggressive offensively jumping out to an early lead in the first thanks to a first quarter hat-trick by captain
Jordan McCoy followed by a fourth goal from the Lions other captain
Ryan Murphy. Harford however would respond by closing the quarter out with four unanswered goals of their own tying the game 4-4 at the end of the first quarter. The Second quarter opened much to the tune of the first with the Lions scoring four unanswered coming from the sticks of
Luke Vando,
Kamryn Gill (
Shane Coleman),
Frank Falco, and
Ryan Murphy once again. Harford then would go on to respond with three goals of their own bringing themselves within one as Nassau led 8-7 at halftime. The third quarter got underway with a second goal from
Kamryn Gill (
Brian Pohoreckyj), a second goal from
Frank Falco (
Ryan Murphy), and a third from
Kamryn Gill. This brought the score to a Nassau lead of 11-7. Harford responded once again by going on a three goal run to cut the deficit to one as Nassau led entering the 4th quarter with a lead of 11-10. The Lions would put on another goal to make the score 12-10 thanks to an unassisted
Frank Falco goal. But that would be the end of the Lions goals as Harford stormed back with a three goal run in the second half of the 4th quarter that allowed them to steal the victory by a score of 12-13. Althought the Lions didn't end the regular season on the high note they hoped they did exhibit great play and look forward to making a run deep into playoffs as they travel to Trenton, NJ to take on Mercer County in the first round of the NJCAA Northeast District Championship, This will be a rematch between the two teams from their regular season match that saw the Lions win 15-1.
Go Lions!
