DANVILLE, Ky. - The Birmingham-Southern men's lacrosse team suffered their first road loss of the season in the SAA Semifinals against #1 seed Centre.
After a huge win on the road against Rhodes in the quarterfinals, the Panthers hoped to continue their undefeated streak away from home. The Colonels got on the board first with a goal after 3:29 of play, but 'Southern took a 2-1 lead with 2:35 remaining thanks to goals from Micah Finotti and Raymond Fracchia. Centre tied the score at two late in the opening period, but the Panthers went into the second quarter with all to play for.
The second period proved to be all Colonels as four unanswered goals over the first 10:29 of action gave the home team a critical 5-2 lead. With all the momentum with the top seed, Micah FInotti scored his second of the night with 11 seconds to go to cut the deficit to two at the break.
Cameron Herd scored the first goal coming out of halftime to put the Panthers down only one. Centre then scored two goals in a little over a minute before Herd fired in his second of the game to make the score 7-5 Centre with 9:39 remaining in the third. Similar to the second period, the Colonels went on a demoralizing 4-0 run to stretch their lead to six heading into the final 15 minutes.
Centre's hot streak continued with three consecutive goals to start the fourth quarter. The visitors finally put an end to the run with 9:59 to go on a goal by Joey Amatulli. With a mountain to climb, Nick Knisely added in another for the Panthers, but the home side stayed strong and held off the #5 seeded Panthers for a 16-7 win in Danville.
Game notes
Records
#5 Birmingham-Southern 10-5 (3-3 SAA), #1 Centre 13-3 (5-1 SAA)
