Seton Hill opened play in the NCAA North Regional with a first round matchup with St Anselm on Friday afternoon at Mercyhurst's Saxon Stadium in Erie.
The Griffins scored with 37 seconds to play in regulation to tie the game at eleven and send it to overtime. St Anselm scored 2:31 into the overtime period to end the Griffins season in heartbreaking fashion with a 12-11 overtime loss. The Griffins end their season with an 11-3 record while the Hawks improve to 13-1 on the season. They advance to the regional semifinal where they will meet top seed LeMoyne on Sunday afternoon.
Thomas Hanulak scored two minutes into the first quarter to tie the contest at one. The Hawks answered with two goals before
Andy Davis scored with 2:02 to play in the quarter to cut the St Anselm lead to 3-2 after one quarter of play.
The second quarter was all Seton Hill as they outscored the Hawks by a 4-1 margin to take a 6-4 halftime lead. Seton Hill scored the first four goals of the quarter.
Jeremy Sforzo opened the scoring in the quarter with a man up goal just 26 seconds into the quarter. Back to back goals from
Logan Maloni less than a minute a part gave the Griffins their first lead of the game at 5-3 with just over ten minutes to play in the half.
Ryan Manbeck then added a man up goal with 7:46 to play in the half as SHU built a 6-3 lead. St Anselm scored with just over a minute to play in the half to cut the SHU lead to 6-4 at the break.
The Griffins held a 25-24 advantage in shots in the first half. SHU won seven of eleven faceoffs in the half.
The Hawks won the third quarter by a 5-3 margin. They scored the first goal of the half to cut the SHU lead to 6-5. Back to back goals from Hanulak and Maloni pushed the SHU advantage back to three with 6:29 to play in the quarter. Just fifteen seconds later the Hawks scored to trim the lead back to two. Sforzo scored his second of the game to extend the lead back to three at 9-6 with 4:59 to play in the third. St Anselm scored the final three goals of the quarter to tie the game at nine.
St Anselm opened the fourth quarter with a goal as they took a 10-9 lead midway thru the fourth.
Zack Estabrooks tied the score at 10 with two minutes to play. The Hawks took a 11-10 lead with a minute to play before
McGarity Harper tied the game at 11 with 37 seconds to play.
Logan Gray won the next faceoff but the Griffins were not able to get a shot off, instead turning it over late in the quarter, sending the game to overtime.
Both keepers made saves in the first minute of the overtime period. The Griffins just missed a win with a shot that just went wide before turning it over to the Hawks.
Kevin Mo made a save but the Hawks got the gound ball and scored with 1:39 to play in the overtime period to end the contest.
Maloni led the Griffins with three goals and two assists. Hanulak and Sforzo each scored twice with Hanulak adding an assist. Manbeck scored a goal and added two assists. Harper finished with a goal and assist. Mo made a career high 25 saves. Gray won 15 of 26 faceoffs.
