The final game of the 2006 men's lacrosse team's season was one of those rare contests that remind us why we watch sports.
With 58 seconds remaining in the third overtime period of the semifinal game between Tufts and Middlebury on May 6, Middlebury senior co-captain Travis Meyer dashed the conference title hopes of the fourth-seeded Jumbos, netting an unassisted goal that secured a 12-11 victory for the top-seeded Panthers.
In the longest game in NESCAC Tournament history, Middlebury preserved two streaks, winning its sixth straight against the Jumbos and keeping alive its bid for a sixth consecutive NESCAC title, which it secured with a 10-9 win over Wesleyan in the championship game on Sunday. With the title, the Panthers earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, their ninth in 10 years.
Tufts, which entered the contest ranked 19th nationally, finished the season with an 11-6 record, not sufficient to secure the at-large NCAA bid that ended up going to Wesleyan.
Meyer's game-winner was set up by an incredible finish to regulation.
With just 10 seconds left in the game and Middlebury clinging to an 11-10 lead and the ball, the Tufts season seemed to be over.
Middlebury junior Nick Bastis ran around the right side of the Tufts goal with the clock winding down, but Tufts junior defenseman Wiley Dornseif stripped Bastis of the ball. Over the next crazed ten seconds, junior midfielder Brett Holm picked up the ball and passed it to freshman Chase Bibby at midfield. Bibby passed to freshman Clem McNally, who received the ball with four seconds left. He found O'Brien trailing up the middle with an over-the-shoulder pass, and O'Brien fired the ball home from point blank range for his fourth goal of the game with just two seconds remaining on the clock, tying the score at 11-11 and forcing the first of the three overtime periods.
Entering the game, the Jumbos were out to avenge a 12-4 drubbing at the hands of Middlebury in the regular season. The momentum was in their favor; the team was riding a 5-1 two-week stint that included a double-overtime win over Bates and three NESCAC wins, with the only loss coming in a 4-3 nail-biter to No. 11 Wesleyan.
"We didn't play our best game before," senior co-captain Billy Granger said. "We were playing our best lacrosse [going into the weekend] and we had been building on what we were doing throughout the season."
The Jumbos took that momentum to their biggest stage of the season, hanging with the three-time national champion Panthers through 71 minutes of back-and-forth play.
The dramatic game got off to a slow start, remaining scoreless for the first 10 minutes until Tufts senior Mark Warner found the back of the net off an assist from McNally. The Panthers came back with back-to-back goals from Bastis and sophomore Jim Cabrera. O'Brien countered for Tufts with his first goal of the day, an unassisted score with 2:32 left. The two teams traded scores one more time and entered the second period in a 3-3 tie.
"We were ready to go from the time we got off the bus," coach Mike Daly said. "I was impressed with our assistant coaches' preparation as well as the players. It was a great atmosphere and one of the best games I have ever been a part of."
The scoring stayed dead-even in the second period, with Middlebury and Tufts again logging three goals each. The Jumbos' goals came from O'Brien, Warner, and McNally, who netted the final goal of the period for a 6-6 draw entering the halftime break.
Going into the second half, the Jumbos wanted to maintain the same game plan.
"There wasn't really much we could change," Granger said. "We had a good first half and wanted to keep that up."
The third period was all Middlebury, as the Panthers scored four goals to the Jumbos' one. Less than two minutes into the period, Meyer slid the ball past Tufts freshman goalkeeper Matt Harrigan, who logged eight saves in the match. Tufts junior Doug Smith equalized at the 10-minute mark, but the Panthers put in three unanswered goals to push the lead to 10-7 by the end of the third.
The Jumbos got off 11 shots in the third period, but Middlebury junior goalkeeper Alex Palmisano recorded four of his 11 saves in the frame.
Palmisano is second in the league in goals against average (6.51) and third in save percentage (.622), and he thwarted several attempts by the Jumbos to work their way back.
Doucette made the first strike to narrow the deficit, propelling the ball past Palmisano at the 14:39 mark in an unassisted run off a face-off. But Middlebury's Cabrera reopened the three-goal gap off an assist from Meyer at the 11:20 mark, leaving the Jumbos the difficult task of trying to come back from a three-goal deficit against one of the NESCAC's best defenses.
The Jumbos were held scoreless for nearly six minutes until junior Chris Connelly sparked the comeback with an unassisted goal to draw within two. O'Brien, assisted by sophomore Joe Cavallo, whittled the Middlebury lead to one with 4:40 remaining, and O'Brien's buzzer-beater spelled overtime
"It did get pretty chaotic when Mikey's goal went in, but that was just a major release of emotion and excitement," Daly said. "Everyone associated with the program had invested a big part of themselves and to have it rewarded with that effort was a great feeling."
During the 11 minutes of overtime, both teams had near-misses on the offensive side and close calls on the defensive end. Tufts had two man-up chances but was foiled by the Panther defense. Numerous shots ricocheted off both teams' goalpost, including junior Brett Holm's powerful shot in the second overtime period. Middlebury, however, had the final word with Meyer's lone overtime shot.
"We had opportunities to win, as did [Middlebury]," Daly said. "It was a great game and I am proud to be the coach of these guys. They represent Tufts in a first-class manner and they work so hard. I felt they deserved to win the game."
The statistics speak to the close nature of the game: the Jumbos had 43 shots to the Panthers' 41; Tufts collected 46 groundballs, only two fewer than Middlebury's 48; and courtesy of senior co-captain Rory Doucette and junior Matt Lanuto, Tufts won 15 of the 28 face-offs.
But even a triple-overtime game against a perennial national championship presence wasn't enough for the Jumbos.
"A loss is a loss. You can't really be happy with a loss," Granger said. "We went out and put together a good effort, but a loss is a loss. You can't really justify that."
