BRISTOL, R.I.- Senior Jared Grier (Quincy, Mass.) fired his shot into the top of the net and the bench came storming onto the field as the Roger Williams University Men's Lacrosse team knocked off #4 regionally ranked Endicott College, 10-9 in overtime on a soggy evening at Bayside Field on Wednesday. In a wild and crazy game that saw three lead changes, five ties, nine penalties, and a lightning delay, the Hawks came from behind to grab the victory over the Gulls for the first time since 2012.
 
Grier tallied four total points and Matt Halpin (Hanover, Mass.) and Gabe Reale (Fairfield, Conn.) added three each while Ryan Bannon (Hopkinton, Mass.) stopped nine shots for the nonconference win.
 
With the victory, the Hawks improve to 6-2 on the season and snap a ten-game head-to-head losing streak against Endicott that dated back to 2012 when RWU defeated Endicott in the CCC Semifinals round. Meanwhile, the visiting Gulls fall to 7-2.
 
Hawk Highlights
Jared Grier (Quincy, Mass.): 3 goals, 1 assist, 2 ground balls, 2 caused turnovers
Matt Halpin (Hanover, Mass.): 2 goals, 1 assist, 2 ground balls, 1 caused turnover
Gabe Reale (Fairfield, Conn.): 1 goal, 2 assists, 2 ground balls, 1 caused turnover
Tim Mullane (Hanover, Mass.): 2 goals, 2 ground balls, 3 caused turnovers
Connor Hillemeir (Farmington, Conn.): 22 face-offs won, 19 ground balls, 1 goal
Ryan Bannon (Hopkinton, Mass.): 9 saves, 9 goals allowed, 63:11 minutes in goal
 
For The Opponents
Domenic Russo (Northborough, Mass.): 3 goals, 1 ground balls
Jack Sutherland (Sudbury, Mass.): 1 goal, 2 assists
Sam DesMarais (York, Maine): 2 goals
Zach Hojnowski (Somers, Conn.): 2 face-offs won, 1 caused turnover
Austin Fournier (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.): 9 saves, 10 goals allowed, 2 ground balls, 63:11 minutes in goal
 
How It Happened
The Hawks came out of the gates firing in this one. They broke the ice just over two and a half minutes in and proceeded to torch the Endicott College defense for three goals in a span of less than 20 seconds of game time. Tim Mullane (Hanover, Mass.) opened the scoring with an unassisted goal before Matt Halpin (Hanover, Mass.) got a transition score off a Hunter Goodrow (Hopkinton, Mass.) assist and Connor Hillemeir (Farmington, Conn.) won the faceoff and took it himself to make it 3-0 Hawks. From there the Gulls defense tightened up and their offense got going and they closed the quarter on a 5-0 run that included a pair of goals from Domenic Russo (Northborough, Mass.) giving themselves a 5-3 edge after one quarter of play.
 
About four and a half minutes into the second quarter, Roger Williams had another scoring flurry as Gabe Reale (Fairfield, Conn.) scored off a Jared Grier (Quincy, Mass.) set up and then 16 seconds later, it was Grier's turn to score his first goal of the contest to tie the game. Endicott got goals from Ryan Varano (Avon, Conn.) and Craig Claflin (Natick, Mass) to end the half with a 7-5 lead.
 
Roger Williams got yet another scoring burst five and a half minutes into the second half. After squandering four man-up opportunities to that point, the Hawks offense finally got one with an extra player on the field as Grier scored off a Halpin dish. Then just ten seconds later, Tim Mullane (Hanover, Mass.) scored to tie the game at seven. The Gulls finally mustered their first goal of the half with, what felt like a real momentum changing goal from Russo with four seconds remaining in the period to make the score 8-7 Endicott.
 
The Hawks responded right away in the fourth, as less than a minute into the frame, Grier found Peter Navarro (Londonderry, N.H.) for the score to tie things at eight. A Sam DesMarais (York, Maine) goal gave the guests the advantage again but Halpin got one of his own to tie the game at nine with just over six minutes remaining. As the pressure mounted down the stretch, the Gulls got a clear and looked to milk some clock before mother nature intervened with a half an hour lightning delay, just to add a little more drama. When play resumed, a sloppy ninety seconds of action ensued.
 
This set up Grier's heroics in sudden death over time as 49 seconds into the extra period, he beat Austin Fournier (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) up high for the game winning score.
 
Ryan Bannon (Hopkinton, Mass.) was steady in net stopping half of the 18 shots he faced on the night, and he was particularly stingy in the second half and overtime allowing just two goals while making four saves. He earned the victory to improve to 6-2 on the season. Fournier matched Bannon save for save in regulation before allowing the game-winner in overtime as he finished with nine saves on 19 total shots to take the loss and fall to 7-2 in net.
 
What's Next
The Hawks face another tough test on Saturday as they venture up to Springfield for a conference showdown against #7 regionally ranked Western New England University beginning at 1:00 PM.