LEWISBURG -- In lacrosse, if you control the groundball stat, you usually end up winning the game.
Navy controlled the groundball game and avenged a last-second loss during the year to defeat Bucknell 9-8 on Sunday afternoon at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium to capture the 2009 Patriot League Lacrosse championship.
The Midshipman (11-4, 4-2 PL), the No. 3 team heading into the tournament, needed three overtimes against Colgate to reach Sunday's final.
"Clearing the ball against Bucknell is something that we felt we had to do to win and we cleared it 20 of 24 times," Navy head coach Richie Meade said. "We also won the groundball stat (36-25), and that was another stat that we had to control to win the game. I have to give Bucknell credit, they kept fighting back."
The win earns the Midshipmen the Patriot League automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Bucknell, the No. 1 seed in the Patriot League (9-7, 6-0 PL), now await the selection committee's announcement next Sunday night at 9 p.m.
"I thought we did a good job with our half-field defense on 6-on-6,"Bucknell coach Frank Fedorjaka said. "Everything we did, every weight we lifted, every shot we took, we were working towards this day (the championship game) all season," he said. "We'll graduate the winningest class of seniors, but we have a good bunch of kids coming back."
The Bison led 5-4 at the half, but suffered a 24-minute second-half scoring drought before tying the game with two goals in 47 seconds in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Junior attackman Tim Brandau paced the Bison attack with three goals. Senior goalkeeper Nick Sciubba made some spectacular saves, including one with his foot, that helped keep the Bison in the game.
The fourth quarter saw the Bison make several mental mistakes, including a too-many-men penalty that led to a man-up goal by Navy with just over three minutes left in the quarter for an 8-7 lead.
"When we were offsides, we threw a player out there and that was the right thing to do," Fedorjaka said. "We didn't take him off and that was the wrong thing to do. We have to do a better job of playing a man-down."
Then on the insuing faceoff, on a strange play, the Bison tried to gain control of the ball, but instead, it was swept towards the goal and crossed over the goal line before it could be stopped by the Bison defense.
That made the score 9-7 Navy, with the goal coming nine seconds after the man-up goal.
"We were trying to get it to one of our guys and our defenseman tripped and it dribbled out of his stick and into the goal," Fedorjaka said of his team scoring on its own goal. "Our guys were heading to their spot to clear the ball, but it's now why we lost the game."
Bucknell pulled to within one, 9-8, with 70 seconds left on Joe Mele's bounce shot, his 28th goal of the season.
The game appeared to turn in the Bison favor just before the half when midfielder Chris Palmer took a bone-jarring hit from Navy midfielder Nick Davis.
Palmer lost control of the ball from the hit, but Navy was unable to capitalize on the offensive possession. Sciubba then started a fast break that led to the Bison taking a 5-4 halftime lead when Austin Winters scored his second goal of the first half with on a one-timer with 2:01 left.
Palmer did not return to the game.
Navy controlled the tempo for the majority of the third period and scored twice, taking a 6-5 lead into the fourth quarter.
College Sports
College men's lacrosse: Navy edges Bucknell in Patriot League championship
Midshipmen edge top-seeded Bison in Patriot final
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