Courtesy of Scranton Athletic Communications
TOWSON, Md. --- The 2016-17 season marks the 10-year anniversary for the Landmark Conference. As part of the buildup to each sport's championship season, fans were asked to select their favorite moment from the first decade from a list created by members of the conference. Each winning moment will be announced prior to the conference championship.
After the final round of voting, the University of Scranton winning its first Landmark Men's Lacrosse Championship received 57 percent of the votes to win the top moment. Susquehanna University winning the conference championship as the No. 3 seed came in second and Elizabethtown College advancing to the 2016 title game was third.
The Royals beat the conference's top two teams on consecutive weekends—one at home in overtime and the other on the road—and opened tournament play with a 12-9 victory over Catholic University at Fitzpatrick Field.
Scranton culminated its late-season surge by defeating defending champion Goucher College, 12-8, to claim its first-ever Landmark title and advance to the NCAA Division III championships for the first time in the program's 25-year history. It is also Scranton's second conference title and first since winning the Hudson League championship in 1995 in its previous affiliation with the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Corporation.
The unlikely hero turned out to be junior attacker Daniel Slade, who scored a career-high five goals and finished with an assist as Scranton won its fourth straight game to improve to 9-7.
The Royals also received two goals and two assists from sophomore attacker Taylor Nelson, a goal and an assist apiece from senior midfielder Keenan Dowd and senior attacker Sean Coleman, and a goal each from junior midfielder Mike Rufo, junior attacker Kevin Brier, and senior attacker Robert Pantages.
Goucher, which likely ends its 2011 season with an 11-6 record, was led by sophomore midfielder John Curry (Yarmouth, Maine/Yarmouth) with two goals and junior midfielder Matt Lynch contributed a goal and two assists.
It was expected to be a nip-and-tuck affair since five of the previous six meeting were decided by one goal, including two games that went into overtime and another that was decided in double overtime.
Instead, Slade keyed two scoring runs that kept the Gophers on their heels throughout the afternoon.
He scored twice during a 5-0 spurt that erased an early 2-1 deficit and propelled Scranton to a 6-3 lead by intermission. Late in the third period, he tallied three goals to spark a 4-0 rally over a 13-minute span that stretched a 7-5 advantage into a comfortable 11-6 lead with 6:25 remaining.
Slade wasn't the only one in on the act.
Like he has all season long, Royal junior midfielder Patrick Cefalu dominated the face-offs, winning 14 of 23 attempts, including all seven in the first period and 9 of 13 by intermission.
Then there was junior goalkeeper Ben Worthington, who, in just his third start of the season, made a career-high 17 saves, including eight in the first half as Scranton established the tempo of the game.
Defensively, the back line of senior Stephen Buestle, junior John McShea, sophomore Tim Cleary and freshman John Doe held the Gophers to two goals under their season average and their third lowest goal output of the season. Scranton also won the battle of the ground balls, holding a 40-33 advantage.