Historic Run Comes to an End A Mechanics Fall In Championship Final
Through three quarters of play, it was anyone's game in the 2023 National Collegiate Lacrosse League's Liberty Division championship game. Williamson and West Chester were neck and neck throughout, with the hosts clinging to a 6-5 lead heading into the final stanza. It was then that the Golden Rams proved their championship mettle once again, as they scored five goals in the final quarter, while shutting Williamson out, to claim the title with an 11-5 win in West Chester.
The game figured to be a tight one and early on it proved to be just that. West Chester scored first before Matt Gallagher, playing his final game in a Williamson uniform, scored on a rocket from the left side to tie things up at 1-1 at the end of the first quarter.
Williamson then grabbed its first lead of the game when Mett Dickinson, coming off a six-goal performance the previous night against Drexel, scored at the 6:39 mark to put Williamson up 2-1. It then took West Chester all of 18 seconds to knot the game again at 2-2 before Williamson answered right back less than a minute later on a second unassisted goal by Dickinson to put them back up, 3-2. West Chester managed a tying goal with under two minutes left in the half to send the teams to the break knotted at 3-3.
The four-time NCLL national champion hosts then came out and scored three straight goals in the first seven minutes of the third quarter to build what seemed to be a commanding lead at 6-3. Williamson was not about to lay down however, as they came back with goals from Konnor Oreskovich and Dickinson's third goal of the game in the final two minutes to pull Williamson within one at 6-5 to start the fourth quarter.
Any hopes the Mechanics had of pulling off an upset were then taken away by the Golden Rams, as they scored in under a minute to start the fourth, and then used a three goal outburst in less than two minutes midway through the period put the game out of reach for Williamson.
While one could easily make the case that Williamson, having played last night and having to come back at 11:00 A.M. the next day to take on a fresh West Chester team that had last night off was a huge factor-especially in the fourth quarter, Williamson head coach Jim DeRose was not about to make excuses.
"Give West Chester credit. They were the better team today and we wish them well in the Final Four. Things did not go our way today, but that in no way diminishes the outstanding season that this team had this year. Coming off a year like last year (4-11) and to turn things around the way they did, you have to give our players and the assistant coaches all the credit in the world.
"We will take this and learn from it and we will be ready to go come next year. These guys have turned this program around and this is just the start. This begins a new era in Williamson lacrosse and I could not be more excited to see that the future holds."
Losing just two starters from this year's team, with a solid incoming class joining next year's squad, it is easy to see why DeRose is so optimistic. Indeed, the best is yet to come.
Goals: Assists Saves
Matt Dickinson -3 Cooper Conroy – 1 Jack Welsh – 9
Matt Gallagher - 1