Jackets Nip Ole Miss

Feb. 15, 2010

ATLANTA, GA- On a cold, windy and snow filled field Saturday afternoon, the Georgia Tech Mens Lacrosse Team came from behind early to top Ole Miss 9-8 to move to 2-0 on the young season. With the win, Head Coach Ken Lovic earned his 100th victory as the coach of Georgia Tech Lacrosse. Leading the way for the Jackets was Neal Toomey who scored three times and also recorded one assist.

Early on it was Ole Miss who found the back of the net first when Billy OLeary scored on a midfielder sweep to take an early 1-0 lead. The Jackets possessed the ball for nearly 10 minutes in the opening quarter but could not get past the goaltending of Ole Miss' Nick Loverde. Early in the second quarter Ole Miss scored again to take a 2-0 lead. But then Jackets got rolling.

To start the Jackets scoring run Toomey socred one on one with Loverde when freshman Justin Kiehne found him wide open on the crease on a transition break. Just two minutes later Alex Del Pozzo got on the scoring sheet when he scored on a man up goal on a feed from Toomey to tie the game at two goals a piece. Then, 20 seconds later Toomey scored on a loose ball in front of the crease to increase the lead to two goals for Tech. Rolling with momentum the defense was playing well as Zack Gassman, Jimmy Sutehall, Evan Jones and Casey Flemming kept the Ole Miss offense off balance. To complete their four goal run Del Pozzo scored his second of the game on a feed from Casey Timmerman. Right before the half though Ole Miss broke through and scored with under 10 seconds remaining to close the gap to 4-3 at halftime.

In the second half Tech got started quickly when Toomey scored his hat trick goal on a feed from Del Pozzo to make the game 6-4 in favor of Tech. Ole Miss responded however to close the gap to one goal once again. The Jackets were able to pull ahead by two once again when Casey Timmerman scored on a feed from Joe Gibson with less than two minutes to go in the quarter but Ole Miss had a response to close out the third quarter with the score 7-6 in favor of Georgia Tech.

Entering the fourth quarter Tech got on the board with ten minutes to play when Joe Gibson scored on a feed from Greg Horton. The goal once again gave Tech a two goal cushion. But Ole Miss was not done as they roared back to score two in a row to tie the game. With momentum on their side Ole Miss looked to take the lead but the stingy defense, and continued fine play of Sam Karpowicz in the Tech goal, allowed Tech to keep the game tied. Then the Jackets got the run they needed as Kyle Gurny made a speedy dodge from the top left and scored on a nice shot in the lower corner of the goal to get the Jackets back on top. On the ensuing face off Tech pressed the cage and Joe Gibson was able to gather a loose ball and toss in what would become the game winner. Ole Miss would score again to make it a one goal game but the Tech offense was able to kill off over 2 minutes of clock to preserve the win.