Bronx, N.Y. – (November 17, 2018) – In one of the hardest fought matches of the Championship, the fourth-seeded Fordham Rams and the top-seeded Bucknell Bison faced off in the first semifinal of the 2018 MAWPC Championship at the Col. Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center. In the end, the Bison would be one goal better than the Rams, advancing to the finals by a 12-11 score.
Bucknell jetted out to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter before
Samuel Varshisky finally got the Rams on the board with a skip shot into the net, putting the score at 4-1 after one quarter of play.
After Fordham cut the deficit to 4-2 on an extra-man goal by
Phillip Wang, Bucknell answered with three straight markers to open up a five-goal lead at 7-2 with 2:22 left in the second.
Jake Miller-Tolt then got on the scoreboard for Fordham, putting the score at 7-3 entering halftime.
The Rams and Bison then went goal for goal in the back and forth match with the Bison remaining ahead by four at 11-7 with 1:32 to go in the third quarter. Fordham though would get back in the match, getting a pair of goals from Miller-Tolt to close the gap to 11-9 with one quarter left.
Dimitris Koukias
The game then got defensive as neither team allowed a goal over the first six minutes of the fourth quarter. However, the Bison got the all-important three-goal lead inside of two minutes to go up 12-9. Wang and Miller-Tolt both got goals in the final minute, but Bucknell was able to run out the clock for the 12-11 win.
For Fordham, Miller-Tolt had a hand in 10 of the 11 Fordham goals, scoring six times while having four assists, as he joined Ned Kelly as the only Rams to net 100 goals in a single season for Fordham. Wang added two goals, two steals, and an assist with
Dimitris Koukias, Varshisky, and
Ian Watson having the final goals. In net,
Bailey O'Mara had three saves to go with a steal.
The loss puts Fordham in the third place game on Sunday, as they will face Wagner at noon.
