ALBANY, N.Y. – Down for the first time all night, the high-powered No. 8 University at Albany offense reeled off three-goals in a 3:10 span to defeat the No. 7 Yale University men's lacrosse team 12-11.
Lyle Thompson (Onondaga Nation, N.Y.), the NCAA career scoring leader, led the Great Danes (11-2, 5-0 America East) with seven points, three goals and four assists. Connor Fields (East Amherst, N.Y.) and Seth Oakes (Akwesasne, N.Y.) combined for seven goals for the hosts.
Eric Scott (Basking Ridge, N.J.) led the Bulldogs (9-3, 3-2 Ivy) with a career-high four goals. Conrad Oberbeck (Greenwich, Conn.), Jeff Cimbalista (New Hope, Pa.) and Ben Reeves (Macedon, N.Y.) added two goals each.
Oberbeck, the second leading goal scorer in team history, passed Ted Moran, '86 to move into fifth place on the career scoring chart with 167 points.
Reeves, had his seventh three-point night of the season. The three-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week, is now two points away from tying the Yale Lacrosse freshman scoring record. The bar of 39 points was set by Mike Devlin, '79 and Brendan Gibson, '07.
UAlbany, which entered the non-conference game the national leader in points per game (28.25) and scoring offense (17.00), struck for four first period goals on only five shots on goal.
Thompson, a two-time All-American, opened the scoring 3:01 into the first lacrosse game played at Bob Ford Field, the home of UAlbany football.
Oakes fired a one-handed shot into the lower portion of the net at the 6:45 mark. Fields, the national leader in freshman scoring, followed with the Great Danes' third goal of the beautiful spring night 48 seconds later.
Oberbeck got the Bulldogs on the scoreboard with 3:36 remaining in the opening quarter. The extra-man goal was assisted by Reeves.
Thompson scored his second of the night at the 13:14 mark.
The first period scoring closed when Scott rocketed a Michael Keasey (Newport Beach, Calif.) feed past Albany goalie Blaze Riorden (Fairpoint, N.Y.) with 53 seconds remaining.
The two top-15 offenses combined for three goals over the final 5:01 of the second period.
Fields and Oakes each fired home a Thompson pass to give the Great Danes a 6-2 lead with 3:23 left in the first half.
At the 12:09 mark, Jeff Cimbalista (New Hope, Pa.) cut the Yale deficit to three. The sophomore one-timed a Jason Alessi (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) dish into the net.
Oakes completed the hat trick 32 seconds into the third quarter. John Maloney (Victor, N.Y.) assisted on the redshirt-sophomore's tally.
Less than a minute later, Scott sent home his second goal of the night.
Fields finished off his hat trick at the 6:21 mark of the third. Kyle McClancy (Bayport, N.Y.) had the helper.
Sean Shakespeare (Walpole, Mass.) fired home an Alessi dish to get the margin back to three with 6:19 left in the period.
The Elis scored twice in an 11-second span to cut the Albany lead to one late in the third.
As the shot clock was signaled for, Reeves scored for the 12th consecutive contest at the 12:15 mark. Off the ensuing face-off win by Conor Mackie (Glen Rock, N.J.), Cimbalista fired home his second of the night.
Thompson broke the Yale run with an unassisted goal with two seconds left in the frame.
Yale scored three goals in the first two minutes of the final period to take its first lead of the night. Scott opened the fourth quarter scoring 1:03 in. The sophomore's hat trick goal was unassisted. Oberbeck and Reeves each followed with their second goals of the evening to give the visitors the lead.
The Great Danes responded with two goals over a 1:51 span to retake the lead. After McClancy knotted the game at 10 at the 2:51 mark, Tim Cox (Schnectady, N.Y.) fired home his tenth of the season.
Oakes followed with his fourth of the night with 8:59 left in the game. Thompson had the helper for his seventh point of the night.
Scott fired home his fourth of the night to cut the Albany lead to one. Off a Great Dane turnover, the Bulldogs final shots were saved by Riorden or off target
Eric Natale (Westminster, Md.) (10-3) stopped 10 UAlbany rockets, while Riorden (11-2) finished with 14 saves.
Yale closes out the regular season at Harvard on April 25. The opening face-off of the Ivy League matchup is set for 4:00 p.m.