The Quinnipiac Bobcats suffered their first loss at home today at the hands of the Sacred Heart Pioneers after a late push fell short in the final seconds. The Pioneers took the game by one goal with a final score of 13-12.
The Pioneers, who remain undefeated in MAAC play jumped out to an early 1-0 lead at the hands of their leading goal scorer, senior attacker Morgan O’Reilly. O’Reilly tallied four goals on the day including his team-leading 40th goal of the season.
After Reilly’s first, Quinnipiac rallied back with back-to-back goals from senior attacker John DeLucia and senior midfielder Trevor Douglas. Each side would tack on another goal to close out the opening quarter at a score of 3-2.
After an early goal by DeLucia to open the second quarter, the Pioneers would storm back scoring the next four goals to take a 6-4 lead. Sacred Heart would not give up their lead for the rest of the game.
“To lose by one goal and to have that many mistakes and that many flaws that are self-attributed shouldn’t be the case,” Quinnipiac head coach Mason Poli said following the game.
This once nationally-ranked Bobcats team has now lost three out of their last four games while only being outscored 51-49 during that stretch.
Quinnipiac was not without their star power today either with DeLucia tallying four goals and the Donnery twins, senior attack Dylan, and senior forward Ryan combining for three goals of their own.
On the defensive side, it was yet another impressive showing for junior goalkeeper Mason Oak. Sacred Heart attempted a whopping 68 shots during the game with 35 making their way to the net. Of those 35 shots on goal, Oak stopped 22 for a save percentage right around .629, well above his average.
The Bobcat’s struggles today were not due to a lack of skill or even performance, but rather they struggled to execute plays when it mattered most.
Things began to look grim for Quinnipiac after O’Reilly extended the Sacred Heart lead to 11-7 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter before the Bobcats began their late push. Seconds later Ryan Donnery would bring the Bobcats back within three goals with the chance to spark the offense. However, immediately after he scored, Donnery ran into a Pioneers defender and was given a one-minute unsportsmanlike penalty, a crushing blow to the new-found Quinnipiac momentum. A similar call occurred later when Donnery negated a man-up advantage after an altercation with the same defender.
After finding themselves down three goals with just over three and a half minutes remaining in the game, the Bobcats rattled off two goals to make it a 13-12 contest in the final minute. Quinnipiac even had the help of a faceoff violation to give them a chance to tie the game in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter.
With 19 seconds remaining in the fourth, Dylan Donnery came inches away from the equalizer with a golden opportunity in front of the net that was denied by Sacred Heart’s senior goalkeeper, Alex Pazienza. A missed pass that went into midfield in the final seconds sealed the fate of the Bobcats. The Pioneers got the ball back and killed the clock to end the game by a 13-12 final score.
Quinnipiac holds their position at fourth place in the MAAC with the loss. But the lead grows larger for Sacred Heart and Siena still vying for the top seed in the conference.
The Bobcats will have their chance to end the recent skid against a middle-of-the-pack VMI team on Saturday, before their MAAC regular-season finale against a red-hot LIU team next weekend.
