May 11, 2010
Primetime players
Senior Kyle Robinson scored four goals for St. Peter's Prep.
Click Here for photos from St. Peter's Prep at Livingston.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
LIVINGSTON – The St. Peter’s Prep lacrosse team found themselves under the bright lights of primetime for the first time and responded with maybe their biggest win of the season.
With the Marauders’ backs against the wall, Kevin Cosgrove forced overtime with less than two minutes left. Nick Mangone completed the comeback with an overtime goal as Prep stunned the host Lancers 6-5 last night.
“The spotlight was on. I actually challenged every single one of my guys today,” head coach Peter Fusari said. “It was a gut-check because we had a tough loss on Friday to Cranford. They were just asleep and weren’t up for the challenge. We’re back where we need to be.”
“It’s the first time we’ve ever played under the lights so we were excited to come out here,” Mangone said. “We wanted the spotlight. We wanted to make something happen.”
Senior Kyle Robinson raced to save possession of the ball behind the net for the Marauders (13-3). Moments later, sophomore Greg Rabiecki found a wide-open Mangone in front of the crease. Without the presence of any Livingston (12-6) defenders in the area, Mangone fired a shot past netminder Josh Stone, capping off an improbable rally with 3:07 left in overtime.
“Kyle made a huge play, diving out for that ball,” Mangone said. “Greg just had a great move. He froze his man, my guy went and I was just wide open. It was all (my teammates) there.”
“The ball went out and I wasn’t going to lose the groundball race,” Robinson said. “So I just dove.”
Trailing 5-4 late in the fourth, Prep took advantage of a power play when junior Kevin Cosgrove delivered an overhand shot from 15 yards out which went in off a bounce with just 1:39 left in regulation.
Despite tying the game, the Marauders needed their defense to come up big after being whistled for a penalty with 1:08 left in regulation.
The Lancers’ Michael Daloia had scored three goal in the second half, but twice was turned away by Prep goalie Dylan Rothenberg during the minute-long penalty.
“Dylan is great,” Mangone said. “I haven’t seen many goalies his age that are that good. He’s going to be special.”
“I knew what I needed to get done,” said Rothenberg. “The team played well all game and I wasn’t going to let the defense down at that point. I felt I had kind of let myself down in the second half so I had to come out firing in the last minute to help our team get the win.”
Rothenberg made 11 saves in the win, anchoring a young, but aggressive Marauder defense.
“That was the story of our game, our defense,” Fusari said. “They were super-aggressive today and we’re young. My goalie’s a sophomore, my two starting (defensive ends) are sophomores too. They played out of their minds and they’ve done it all year.”
While Rothenberg set the tone on defense, it was Robinson who did the same on offense.
Trailing 1-0 early in the second quarter, the towering 6-foot-6 senior scored twice in a span of 54 seconds to put Prep out in front. Robinson would add two more goals in the second half.
The Marauders held a 2-1 lead at the half thanks to Robinson’s two quick goals, but Daloia tied the game with a goal just 12 seconds into the third quarter. Daloia gave Livingston a 5-4 lead when he scored with 4:40 left in the fourth.
Andrew Lesser and Anthony Daloia also tallied goals for the Lancers in defeat.
Marauders junior Kevin Cosgrove tied the game with a fourth-quarter goal.
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
OT |
G |
|
| St. Peter's Prep Marauders (13-3) | 0 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
| Livingston Lancers (13-6) | 1 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
5 |