Raiders fall in OT to Bison 13-12

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Raiders fell on the road to Nichols College in men's lacrosse 13-12 Saturday afternoon in non-conference men's lacrosse action at Vendetti Field. Senior Zac Smith (Wilbraham, Mass.) scored his second goal of the game eight seconds into overtime to lift the host Bison to the victory.   

Freshman Sean Given (Londonderry, N.H.) scored four times for Rivier (2-1), which also received three goals from sophomore Kyle Graham (Londonderry, N.H.) and two from senior Danny Hooper (Wakefield, R.I.). Sophomore Clark Plummer (Londonderry, N.H.) recorded 32 saves. The Raiders went 5-for-8 with the extra man.

Nichols was led on the day by sophomore Anthony Verville (Portland, Maine) who potted five goals while junior captain Michael Bane (North Grafton, Mass.) picked up a hat trick as the Bison have won their first two games for the first time since the 2009 campaign. Nichols outshot the Raiders 55-32.

The Bison led 12-8 with 5:52 remaining in the fourth before the Raiders ripped off four-straight goals to tie the game. Given began the run with a man-up goal at 5:26 before goals by Hooper at 3:21, Given at 1:07, and sophomore Kevin Dembkoski (Salem, N.H.) with 24 seconds left sent the game to OT. Freshman Kevin D'Angelo (Pelham, N.H.) won the opening face-off in the extra session, then found Smith for a shot that beat Plummer high and ended the game.

The game was tied at three after one as Bane netted a pair for Nichols. Two tallies from Verville in the second quarter helped the Bison open up a 7-4 lead before Hooper set up a pair of Rivier goals to send his team into the half down by one.

Each team found the back of the net once in the third, and Nichols scored four of the first five goals in the fourth to open up a four-goal cushion. Verville scored twice while senior Brian Girard (Norwood, Mass.) and Bane also beat Plummer.

Junior Sean Coates (Grafton, Mass.) collected a team-high eight ground balls and cased three turnovers, as did junior Shaun Delaney (Woburn, Mass.). Rivier junior Cody Lynch (Salem, N.H.) led all student-athletes with nine GB's while freshman John Cangiamila (Woburn, Mass.) caused three turnovers.

Nichols freshman netminder Peter Zygadlo (Hanover, N.H.) stopped 12 shots to improve to 2-0.

The Bison head to Salem State for a 4 p.m. contest on Tuesday. Rivier heads to Regis (MA) for a 5 p.m. game on Monday.