After hearing an inspiring half time speech from their head coach, the fired up Castleton men’s lacrosse team was able to notch a 7-6 win on Saturday against Plymouth State at Spartan
Stadium after a second half comeback. Senior Nohea King was the Spartans’ leading scorer of the game with three goals, including the game winner.

The visiting Panthers grabbed an early lead when Shawn McEvoy put his team on the board just 3:43 into the game. Five minutes later, Stephen Patch, the Panthers’ leading scorer found Brett
Miller to give Plymouth a lead of two goals in the first quarter.
With 5:01 left in the first, senior Luke Titus drove to net to get the Spartans on the board. Zach Davidson also beat the Panthers goalie to tie the game at two by the end of the first frame.

“When it went back and forth, it was nail biting,” said sophomore defender Ethan Smith. “We made a few poor decisions, but we were able to pull our act together and prevail.”

The second quarter included two more goals from Plymouth before halftime; including one from Patch and Chris Annunciata.
The Spartans came out rumbling in the second half after a speech by head coach Bo McDougall.
According to the team, he told them to remember why they played lacrosse and to do it for themselves and the team. McDougall
told them to play for the brother standing next to them and to put it all on the line. If they were holding back, they weren’t reaching their full potential. He believes his team will do huge
things this year and that all starts with how bad they want it.

This fired up the Spartans as King stepped up with consecutive goals and was followed by tww more from junior Alex Green.

The four goals went unanswered until Patch found the net again by a pass from Aaron Boss. Nick Morello of Plymouth made the
tying goal with 5:06 remaining in the game.

“(The speech) really fired us up,” said senior Ryan Cave. “We definitely had a chip on our shoulder after not scoring in the first half.”

The Spartan seniors stepped up in the last few minutes of the game as Sam Bailey assisted King’s third and final goal of the game with 2:57 remaining. This put Castleton up 7-6.
The Panthers just couldn’t convert plays into goals anymore as time ran off the clock. The Spartans sealed the victory by one goal.

“The last twenty seconds were the longest moments of my life,” Smith said.

Panther goalie Jesse Kutz made ten saves for Plymouth while Castleton’s sophomore goalie, Sam Polas, made seven first half saves and freshman Peter Latulippe made two saves for the Spartans.

Plymouth earned its first loss of the season and the Spartans advance to a 2-2 record.

Castleton will travel to Johnson State to open their North Atlantic Conference play next Saturday, Mar. 23 at 1 p.m.