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Eagles Improve to 5-0 after Overtime Thriller with Miami

Feb. 11, 2007

ATLANTA, GA It was a busy weekend for both the Eagles and the Hurricanes of Miami. A first year program in the SELC A division, the Canes came into their contest against Emory off of a 10-2 loss suffered on Saturday versus Auburn. Emory on the other hand came into this afternoon's game pumped after upsetting No. 21 SCAD on Friday night.

Emory got on the board early with an unassisted goal scored by Kevin Platt (Mountain Lakes, NJ/Mountain Lakes) to which Miami quickly answered with a goal of their own. After Tyler Sant (St. Louis Mo, Chaminade) found the back of the net for his first of two on the day, the U once again retaliated, making the score deadlocked at two going into the second half.

Emory had trouble scoring early in the third quarter, but the Eagles finally took a 3-2 lead when Alex Leung (Short Hills, NJ/Millburn) scored off of a fast break situation with a feed from David Franklin (Jericho, NY/Jericho - Drew). Miami was able to tie the game at three, but Curt Simmons (Wilmington DE/Tantall) was able to score his first of a personal three to regain the lead for the Birds. From there, the relentless Hurricanes went on an unanswered three goal run to make the score 6-4 leading into the last six minutes of the game.

Fortunately, David Morrison (Greenwich CT/Creenwich) would earn his second assist on the afternoon when he was got the ball to an open Sant, cutting the Miami lead to one. Simmons would then come through huge with an unassisted, game tying goal with three and a half minutes left on the clock.

Through the second overtime, the game remained a back and forth contest with strong play from both the Miami keeper, Tim Heacock and David Laub (Pine Brook, NJ/Montville). For the first time this season, Reed started Laub and played him the entire game while Andrew Dunn (Needham, MA/Needhman) would see time in the second half as a long stick defender.

The game would finally come to an end when Daniel Goetzel (Bethesda, MD/Winston Churchill) would enter the offensive zone and move the ball to Simmons for a rip which ended them game on the completion of the hat-trick.

As usual Ryan Covert (St. Louis, MO/Chaminade) had a solid defensive performance forcing numerous turnovers, while Michael Kowalczyk (River Forest, IL/Oak Park and River Forest) and Paul Goleb (Rockville, MD/Walter Johnson) both contributed at the midfield with exceptional transition play. The strong defensive play of Evan Cropper (New York, NY/Trinity) and Stephen Crump (Houston, TX/Lawrenceville) were key at crucial times during the game.

Today's victory was the first over a Division A program since 2005 when the Eagles defeated Western Michigan 11-10.

Attackers Jarrett Levy (Boca Raton, FL/St. Andrews) and Robert Nugent (Fiver Forest, IL/St. Ignatius) both sat out today's game due to illness.

The undefeated blue and gold now head to St. Louis to showcase themselves outside of the Southeast. They will be taking on Missouri-Rolla and Saint Louis University; both B division members of the Great Rivers Conference.

To view photos from the Miami (FL) game click here.