GW Falls in Overtime, 14-13, in National Championship

May. 10, 2012

GW Falls 14-13 (OT) in National Championship

In a game of the ages, the Bearcats of Cincinnati had to wait until overtime before capturing their first NCLL Division II National Championship in Annapolis, MD. With explosive speed and accurate shooting, the Bearcats jumped out to an early 4-1 lead against upstart George Washington in the first quarter. Reminiscent of other Division II games for the Bearcats, the GW faithful were wary of a blowout loss to the wire to wire top seed in the University of Cincinnati. Slowly battling back from a 7-3 deficit, it appeared that GW would close the gap as they regrouped after halftime and narrowed the score to 9-8.

However, Cincinnati went on one of their patented runs to extend their lead to a convincing and possibly game changing 12-9 moments later. After the 12^th goal, GW rightly called timeout to change their strategy going into the last 12:22 of play. Over the next 10:00 minutes, GW scored four straight to take their first lead of the day (the only time UC would trail in the entire tournament) for a 13-12 stake with 1:14 left in the fourth quarter. Less than 15 seconds later, Cincinnati seized back the momentum with an equalizer with 56.7 seconds on the scoreboard. With stellar play on both sides, extra time would be needed to settle the score after GW fended off an EMO opportunity and Cincinnati held onto the ball as time expired in regulation.

Heading into overtime in EMO, Cincinnati could not get past a resilient GW defense and almost as quickly as the penalty expired and GW was set in their 6 v 6 defense, sophomore attackman Branden Yoshino dodged from behind the cage, made a lightning-quick inside roll then fired a shot from right on the doorstep over the goalkeeper’s shoulder and into the top right corner of the net to give Cincinnati a thrilling 14-13 overtime victory over George Washington.