ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Elizabethtown's Ben O'Connor scored the eventual game-winning goal with 7:32 to play and The No. 3 seed University of Scranton men's lacrosse team (11-7) dropped an 18-16 heartbreaker to the second seeded Blue Jays (11-6) in Landmark semifinal action on Wednesday afternoon at Wolf Field.

ETown advances to Saturday's Landmark title game at Catholic, while the Royals see their season come to an end at 11-7.

The game was a back and forth affair throughout much of the contest and things were tied at three apiece after one quarter. After a goal from junior Chris Crapanzano (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) at the 13:46 mark of the second quarter tied things at four, the Blue Jays scored six of the next eight goals to open up a 10-6 lead with 3:41 remaining in the period. Junior Nick Donato (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) and sophomore Seamus O'Callaghan (Bethpage, N.Y./Chaminade) both added tallies in the final 90 seconds to bring the Royals within 10-8 at the half.

Fellow junior Mitchell Kozak (Floral Park, N.Y./Floral Park Memorial) scored consecutive goals to open the scoring in the third quarter and the latter evened things at 10 apiece. Following classmate Matt Solleder's (Ramsey, N.J./Don Bosco Prep) goal off a feed from Kozak to give Scranton an 11-10 edge at the 8:23 mark, the Floral Park, N.Y., native struck again just eight seconds later to make it a 12-10 game for the time being. Elizabethtown would not go quietly however and battled back to even things at 12. In the final minute of the quarter, Solleder found the back of the net on an assist from senior Mike Bouhall (Lynbrook, N.Y./Lynbrook) to tie things at 14 apiece at the end of three.

The two teams once again traded goals in the early stages of the fourth quarter and a tally from senior Cole Lukasiewicz (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) left things once again deadlocked at 16 with 8:35 left. O'Connor's afore-mentioned goal gave the Blue Jays the lead for good just over a minute later before an insurance goal with just over four minutes remaining.

Kozak and Solleder had four goals apiece to pace the Royals, while Crapanzano added two goals and three assists and Lukasiewicz had a pair of goals of his own.

Elizabethtown was led by six different players with multiple goal games including hat tricks from Riley Langen, Colin Cummings and Gavin Gismondi.

Freshman John O'Connor (Rocky Point, N.Y./Rocky Point) won 15 face-offs and collected six ground balls to lead Scranton and classmate Evan Rosa (Weehawken, N.J./Pennington School) made eight saves in net.

The Royals' 2022 roster featured nine seniors or graduate students: Bouhall, Lukasiewicz, Steve Apicella (Stony Point, N.Y./North Rockland), Tyler Blum (West Chester, Pa./West Chester East), Chris Coico (South Hempstead, N.Y./South Side), Sean Crotty (Long Beach, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial), Finn Duignan (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh), Michael Grant (Malverne, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) and Dante Venuto (Mount Laurel, N.J./Lenape).

--ROYALS--