Mechanics Drop Heartbreaker to St. Joe's
In a game in which Williamson never led and saw them down by two goals with under six minutes to play, it looked like the Mechanics might have had enough momentum in a comeback attempt in the final minutes of Friday afternoon's game against St. Joe's to pull of an upset. Alas, the Hawks scored with 1:57 left and were able to ride out the clock to escape with a 7-6 win over Williamson.
The teams met twice last year, with St. Joe's winning both games by scores of 11-6 and 12-3. Based on that, the Hawks were big favorites heading into the contest. But people are quickly finding out that this year's Williamson squad is vastly different from last year's team, as in a vastly improved one. Having taken on both of the NCLL Liberty division championship game participants on successive weeks to start the season, Williamson was in both contests right to the very second.
On Friday, St. Joe's jumped to an early 2-0 lead before Luke Van Auken (SR/Haddon Heights, NJ) got on the board for Williamson to pull them to within 2-1. The Hawks scored a late goal to lead 3-1 at the end of one period.
Williamson pulled to within 3-2 on a rocket of a shot from Nick Burdumy (FR/West Chester, PA), and then tied things up at 3-3 on an equally beautiful shot by Van Auken to tie things up at 3-3. The teams remained tied at half.
St. Joes would score two goals in 2:01 to go up 5-3, the last coming at the 7:26 mark, before a goal by Sean Lohr (FR/Springfield, PA) pulled Williamson back to within a goal at 5-4 heading into the fourth quarter.
St. Joe's scored at the 9:01 mark and looked to be in control until Williamson came roaring back, scoring two goals in a 1:33 span. The first goal came on a put back by Sean Lohr for his second goal at the 5:47 mark. Then a rocket from Cooper Conroy (FR/Broomall, PA) at the 4:14 mark knotted the teams again. Sadly for Williamson, the Hawks would score with under two minutes and hold on for the win.
"We are there, " shared head coach Jim DeRose. We are where we want to be. Now we have to learn how to win those close games.
"There are things we need to work on but I'm confident we will continue to improve. So far, you are seeing a great effort by the guys."
Williamson travels to Delaware on Wednesday afternoon to take on Del Tech in a 4:00 P.M. start.
