Gophers Go 9-for-10 on Extra Man, Crush Wildcats

TOWSON, Md. — One day after he contributed three goals and a pair of assists to Goucher's 15-8 triumph over Ferrum, Owen Demmerly (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) turned in a four-goal, three-assist performance to guide the Gophers past SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 21-5, this afternoon on Beldon Field.

The senior attackman, the team leader in points with 25 through the first seven games of the season, scored two times and picked up an assist on a man-up goal by Leo Sementilli (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) in the opening quarter, which ended with Goucher on top, 5-1.

All five goals scored in the second period belonged to the Gophers (6-1), starting with an unassisted goal by Pierce Bailey (Miami, Fla./Gulliver Prep), followed by another extra-man goal by Sementelli and then Demmerly's third and fourth goals of the contest. Bailey closed out the scoring in the first half with a man-up goal that provided head coach Brian Kelly's squad with a commanding 10-1 advantage.

Goucher had already tacked on one extra-man goal by Michael Morgan (Austin, Texas/Westwood) in the third quarter before the visiting team was assessed a three-minute non-releaseable penalty for an illegal body check. While the Wildcats (1-3) were down a man for the entire three minutes, Sementilli, Bailey and Grant Lasorda (Collegeville, Pa./Germantown Academy) all scored as the Gophers extended their lead to 14-1.

In the fourth quarter, the goal Derek Bitzer (Doylestown, Pa./LaSalle College) scored and one of the three that Michael Bulnes (Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus) tallied were of the man-up variety. For the game, the home team was 9-for-10 on extra-man opportunies.

The five goals Bulnes scored today were the most by a Goucher player since Max Roach also scored five times in an 11-3 victory over Drew back on March 29, 2014.

The Gophers are now 4-0 on their current six-game homestand, which continues on Saturday, March 19, against Catholic, the defending Landmark Conference champion. Opening face-off is 1 p.m. and the game will take place either on Beldon Field or in Gopher Stadium.