Men’s Lacrosse Falls To Air Force, Head To SoCon Tournament As Top Seed

Saturday, May 1

Richmond, Va.

Noon

University of Richmond

6-5, 5-1SoCon

Air Force

4-8, 3-3SoCon

Air Force

Richmond

Photo by: Erika Latta

Men’s Lacrosse Falls To Air Force, Head To SoCon Tournament As Top Seed

05/01/2021 | Men's Lacrosse

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RICHMOND, Va. – The 15^th-ranked University of Richmond men's lacrosse team dropped its first Southern Conference game of the year in its regular season finale as the Spiders suffered a hard fought 9-8 decision to visiting Air Force Saturday afternoon at Robins Stadium.

Despite the loss, the Spiders finished as co-champions of the Southern Conference along with High Point with a 5-1 league record. The loss is just the sixth regular season loss in SoCon play in program history.

Richmond will enter the 2021 SoCon Tournament as the number one seed and will face fourth-seeded Air Force in a rematch at Robins Stadium Wednesday evening. The Spiders and Falcons will meet in semifinal number one at 5:30 p.m. while second-seeded High Point will meet third-seeded Jacksonville at 8 p.m. The SoCon Championship game is set for Friday at noon at Robins Stadium.

Richmond (6-5, 5-1 SoCon) out-shot the Falcons by a 45-29 margin in the loss but Air Force goalie Jason Rose recorded 18 saves in the victory, limiting the Spiders to their lowest scoring output of league play this year.

Sophomore attack Richie Connell (Evergreen, Colo.) led the Spiders with a game-high five goals, four of which came on the man advantage. Connell now has scored nine man-up goals this season and 16 in his career, becoming the Spiders' record holder for career man-up goals in just 18 career games surpassing the previous mark of 14 by Austin Brown (2015-18).

Air Force (4-8, 3-3 SoCon) started the game quickly, scoring the first two goals in the opening 1:03 if the game. Senior Austin Reid (Clinton, Conn.) came back and scored his second of the year on senior day while Connell tied the game with his first man-up goal. The teams traded goals back and forth and went into the locker room at halftime tied at 5-5.

Air Force scored the first three goals of the second half, holding an 8-5 lead with 8:00 remaining in the game. The Spiders started to rally as senior Tyler Shoults (Warners, N.Y.) scored his ninth of the season unassisted trimming the deficit to two.

Connell scored back-to-back man-up goals in a span of 11 seconds, both off feeds from Ryan Lanchbury (Burlington, Ontario), tying the game at 8-8 with 3:53 remaining. The Falcons took the lead back at 3:19 when Brenden Crouse scored. The Spiders battled in the closing minutes, having multiple looks including one from Brett Randall (Brighton, N.Y.) in the final minute that beat Rose but hit the cross bar negating the Spiders' comeback attempt.

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