Brock Badgers 8, Bishop's Gaiters 7
Box score
The defending Baggataway Cup champions had a lot of turnover this season and took a while to find their game, but Brock did what it needed to do in a tight quarterfinal win over Bishop's Friday night at Justin Chiu Stadium on the campus of Trent University in Peterborough.
Bishop's had three of the leading goal scorers in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association this season, and two of them scored 30 seconds apart to give the Gaiters an early lead: Jacob Gasperetti with his first of 3 goals and then Antoine Tremblay with his first of 2 goals plus an assist.
Blair Pachareva got a pair to even things up then Sam Leclair and Aidan Buis connected to make it 4-2 for the Badgers after the first quarter.
The game was a bit sloppy, with the ball hitting the turf often and some scrambled play, but much of that could be attributed to solid defensive work, particularly by Brock player of the game, defender Andrew Kidd.
Each team scored just once in the second quarter, with Pachareva and Tremblay each connecting again. Connor O'Toole was outstanding through the game for Brock and Sebastien Elie was his equal in the Bishop's net and faced more chances, earning player of the game for the Gaiters.
Bishop's got the first two goals of the third quarter and the teams approached the final minute of the frame still tied at 5-5. Leclair took a precise cross-field pass from Andrew Rybka and placed an underhand shot that wasn't powerful but perfectly placed through traffic into the far corner with 60 seconds left in the quarter.
Then Rybka got one of his own with just three seconds on the clock to push the Badgers back up by two.
Gaperetti got one back for the Gaiters but Mitch Zulian matched it to restore the lead. Then Alex Lizotte scored with 1:50 to play and Bishop's was pushing for an equalizer. They wouldn't find it, but they came close, right down to the final second when O'Toole was forced to make one last stop to preserve the win.
Now Brock advances to the second semifinal, at 4:30 pm ET. It is a rematch of last year's thrilling overtime championship game against the Guelph Gryphons, the top seed in the West Division.
All the 2022 Baggataway Cup games can be viewed live and archived on Lax Sports Network.
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