SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The No. 5/6 Army West Point men's lacrosse team won an overtime thriller 14-13 on Wednesday night over No. 7/9 Syracuse.
The win marks the third in a row over the Orange and the first 4-0 start to a season since 2007.
Like the previous three games, the opposition struck first. Army never wavered though. Jacob Morin tied things up with an absolute laser, then Evan Plunkett scored making it 2-1 Army.
Syracuse would score the next two goals, but Army responded with three of its own. Reese Burek scored twice and Morin scored one of the nastiest goals this season with an insane toe drag to drop his defender before scoring.
Army went into the second quarter with a 5-4 lead. Cuse would make a run in the second however. The lone Black Knight goal of the quarter came from Jackson Eicher but Army would go into the break down by two.
Down 9-6 in the third, Bailey O'Connor scored on a great pass from Plunkett to cut it to two. After an Orange goal to make it 10-7, Plunkett found the back of the net to cut it two. Just over five minutes later Eicher struck yet again to make it 10-9. Cuse would answer but then Burek and Plunkett tied things up before the end of the third.
The Orange took the lead early in the fourth but Gunnar Fellows knotted things back up and 50 seconds later Jacob Morin came through clutch and gave Army the lead with 9:35 to play.
After Cuse tied it with 2:28 to go, they had a chance to take the lead with under a minute left. Matt Chess came up big as he did time and time again and got the stop to send the game into overtime.
Overtime is where things got truly wild. The Orange won the faceoff but after a shot went over Army gained possession but the clear failed and with Chess up field trying to get the ball up field, Syracuse had an open net to shoot on and it went wide right to give Army possession.
Instead of calling timeout, Jack Emmer Men's Lacrosse Head Coach Joe Alberici didn't call timeout and trusted his guys. The next sequence will live forever in Army men's lacrosse history.
Jackson Eicher worked his way from behind the cage, drew a double team, spun to his left, then back to his right, fired it on frame and it went in. He sprinted to the Army bench with his helmet off and arms spread wide as he just ended the game.
This is the Black Knights second top-15 win of the year, both coming on the road.
Next up for Army is another road game, this time to kick off conference play against Lafayette on Sunday at noon.
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