March 12, 2000|By Jake Schaller | Jake Schaller,SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Eric Goodberlet picked a good time to score his first goal of the lacrosse season.
Goodberlet, an honorable mention All-American and Nazareth's leading scorer last season, beat goalkeeper Ray Pagano with eight seconds remaining to lift the No. 2 Golden Flyers to a thrilling 12-11 victory over No. 6 Washington College in front of 300 spectators at Loyola's Curley Field.
The victory avenged an 11-8 loss to the Shoremen in last year's season opener.
"They were playing good defense on me all day, and I couldn't quite get by them," said Goodberlet, who also had an assist. "On the last play I was able to dodge and get a good shot."
Thanks to Goodberlet's late-game heroics, a Shoremen comeback attempt was ruined for the second week in a row.
Washington (0-2) trailed 7-1 at the half against Washington and Lee last week, but rallied to close to within one before losing, 10-8. Yesterday, the Shoremen trailed 8-4 at the half, but went on a 5-1 run to take the lead with 7: 50 remaining in the fourth period.
"I think it took a lot out of us to have to come back like that," Washington coach J. B. Clarke said.
Washington's Owen Mulhern (game-high four goals) put the Shoremen up 9-8 on an outside-inside fake and shot from the left side of the field. The Golden Flyers (1-0) answered 2 1/2 minutes later on a goal by P. J. Rosencrans and took the lead back with 2: 11 left on Stephen Blount's team-high third goal. Washington again tied the score at 11 just 30 seconds later when sophomore attackman Chris Johnson scored in traffic off an assist from Mulhern.
Pagano then stopped a Golden Flyers' shot to give the Shoremen possession and a chance to win the game. The Shoremen decided not to call a timeout, but turned the ball over before they could get off a shot.
"We talked about not taking a timeout so we could keep the guys playing offense for them on the field playing defense," Clarke said. "We just made a stick-work error."
The loss overshadowed a stellar performance by Pagano. After splitting halves with fellow sophomore John Chrismer last week, Pagano won the starting job in practice and came through with a season-high 14 saves.
Chris Johnson had a hat trick for the Shoremen, Nick Nylund scored a pair of goals and J. D. Radebaugh and Jon Fellows had one apiece.