Royals Take Out Top-Seeded Gophers, 10-9

Royals Take Out Top-Seeded Gophers, 10-9

Fitzpatrick Scores Four Times, Finishes Career with 93 Goals

April 29, 2009

TOWSON, Md. – Goucher led 3-2 after one period and 5-4 at the end of the first half. And thanks to a goal by Alex Boucher (North Wales, Pa./Germantown Academy) with :03 remaining in the third quarter, the Gophers also began the final 15:00 with a one-goal advantage over Scranton today in the semifinals of the 2009 Landmark Conference championship tournament.

That slim lead, however, quickly evaporated when Robert Pantages tallied his only goal of the contest just :44 into the fourth quarter. Just over 3:00 later, the Royals went ahead for the first time since the opening period on a goal by Thomas Kornobis. Then with 7:54 left to play, an extra-man goal by Robby Napp made the score 10-8 in Scranton's favor.

Brian Hoge (Crofton, Md./Arundel) sliced Goucher's deficit in half with his unassisted goal with 4:57 remaining, but there would be no more scoring after that as the Royals (9-7) were able to pull off the 10-9 upset of the tournament's No. 1 seed.

In order to protect his team's one-goal lead, goalkeeper Jeremy Dowiak had to make three saves in the final 3:40. He finished with a total of 16 saves.

An unassisted goal by Sam Fitzpatrick (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) snapped a 2-2 tie with 1:15 remaining in the first quarter and then the senior attackman stuck a pair of extra-man goals just :50 apart early in the second period to put the Gophers ahead 5-2.

Fitzpatrick again provided Goucher with a one-goal lead when he scored unassisted 2:45 into the third quarter. It was his 35th goal of the season and 93rd of his career.

Kyle Boncaro (Geneva, N.Y./Geneva) was awarded assists on two of Goucher's goals to finish the season with 35 assists, two shy of the single-season school record set by Tim Asher in 1997.