NOVA's CJ Ward is tailed by two UMW players, all trying to get to the ball.

The NOVA men’s lacrosse team waited until the last seconds to edge the University of Mary Washington’s lacrosse team 11-10 on Saturday afternoon, April 10 on the UMW campus in Fredericksburg.
With five seconds to go and the score tied 10-10, NOVA retained possession behind the UMW goal as a missed shot went out of bounds. NOVA’s Thuc Tran threw the ball in and found Pat Roche just behind the goal. He went around the right side of the goal and threw in a close-in unexpected shot over his right shoulder, scoring the winning goal as time ran out. This gave the amazing 11-10 win to NOVA. To cap it off, this was NOVA’s first lead of the day.
After the match, Coach Matt Blamey remarked, “I was really pleased with our effort today. We came out flat initially, but then we had that movie script ending. We needed a win.”
As Blamey indicated, NOVA fell behind early in the game which featured the clock running for 20-minute quarters. There was no scoring for 10 minutes, but then UMW scored three goals within five minutes for a 3-0 lead.
NOVA scored two goals in the second quarter but was still down 5-2 when Landon Jones scored his second goal of the period as time ran out to cut the deficit to 5-3. Little did anyone realize at the time that without that last second goal, the fourth quarter last-second shot would not have been a game winner.
In the third quarter, NOVA closed within one goal on two goals three times by Pat Roche and once by Kiel Cooke. NOVA then finally tied it at 7-7 on a last-minute unassisted goal by Freddie Karsten.
UMW rose to the challenge early in the fourth quarter, scoring two goals in the first five minutes to go up 9-7. NOVA got close to another Kiel Cooke goal. But on a NOVA misplay in front of its own goal, UMW grabbed the loose ball and scored easily for a 10-8 lead with about five minutes to go.
NOVA didn’t seem fazed by the two-goal deficit as Tran and then Cooke scored with a minute go to, to tie it up 10-10.
UMW recovered the ensuing face-off but missed the shot, and NOVA raced down the field with seconds remaining. A missed shot went out of bounds behind the goalie with NOVA retaining possession, setting the stage for the final five seconds of heroics.
With this win, the NOVA lacrosse team notched its second of the year.
The team is composed mainly of area freshman, including three each from Forest Park and Battlefield high schools. It is coached by Blamey with assistants Nick and Ryan Verrilli.
Remaining games are set to take place April 24 at George Mason University and April 30 at Maryland’s Stevenson University.

Updated

The original story appearing online and in print misspelled Matt Blamey’s name.

By: Arch Scurlock

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