If you’re tired after just watching Saturday night’s game between Saint Joseph’s and Yale, you’re not the only one.
In a contest that felt like a full 60-minute sprint, Yale faceoff men James Ball and Nicholas Ramsey were able to outduel Hawks ace Zach Cole in the fourth quarter. That signaled a clear momentum shift from the first three quarters, giving Yale the edge in an 18-16 win at Reese Stadium.
Yale, the fourth seed in the NCAA tournament, heads to the quarterfinals next weekend in Hempstead, N.Y., to face a familiar foe in Princeton.
Saint Joseph’s, making its first NCAA tournament appearance in program history, was up for the challenge on the road against the No. 4 national seed. A 5-1 burst in the second quarter put the Hawks ahead 9-6 with 2:06 left before the half, but in a sequence emblematic of the pace of the contest, Yale quickly caught up and went into the break trailing by just one goal.
The second half was a continuation of that frenetic pace. Jack Monfort and Chris Lyons scored less than a minute apart to flip that one-goal Yale deficit into a one-goal Yale lead before Carter Page answered for SJU, tying the score at 10.
Page’s goal started a 56-second blitz in which four goals were scored — two by each team — the last of which by Brian Tevlin gave Yale a 12-11 lead with 9:03 left in the period. Leo Johnson added to Yale’s lead 90 seconds later, then Ball won a faceoff and scored seven seconds after that.
The Hawks, who certainly have quite a few more fans after their display, came back to tie the score at 15 when Matt Bohmer wrapped around his defender to score with 7:25 left in the contest.
Possession in the fourth quarter wasn’t as easy for SJU to come by as it was early on. Cole still finished with a 22-for-37 line, but Yale head coach Andy Shay expertly mixed and matched, alternating between Ball and Ramsey in the final 15 minutes so Cole couldn’t get into a rhythm.
Yale held a 5-2 faceoff advantage in the fourth quarter as a result.
It was one of Ball’s wins that led to the go-ahead goal, a freshman-to-freshman strike by Johnny Keib that was assisted by Johnson.
Ahead 16-15, Yale wasn’t finished. Ball won the next faceoff but turned it over. Bohmer ripped another shot, but it was saved by Jared Paquette (16 saves). A successful clear led to Matt Brandau’s 56th goal of the spring and a 17-15 lead.
Colin Reich cut the two-goal lead in half with 3:37 remaining, but Yale again had the answer. Tevlin assisted Johnson for the dagger with 2:14 left. Ramsey won the final faceoff of the game, allowing Yale to run down the clock to 43 seconds — and the Yale defense held firm to keep SJU away from the goal.