NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The No. 4 seeded Yale University men's lacrosse team played a thriller on Saturday night at Reese Stadium in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The No. 6-ranked Bulldogs came back from a three-goal second quarter deficit to earn the win over No. 18 Saint Joseph's, 18-16.
 
10 different Bulldogs scored against the Hawks led by four goals and two assists by both junior Matt Brandau and first year Leo Johnson. The Elis also got a huge boost in the second half from rookie James Ball in the faceoff circle as he won 8-of-13, going up against the nation's leader in faceoff percentage and groundballs.
 
Yale advances to the NCAA Quarterfinals for its third consecutive season and will play No. 5 Princeton at James M. Shuart Stadium in Hempstead, N.Y., next Saturday, May 21 at either noon or 2:30 p.m., live on ESPNU.
 
"We pride ourselves on playing hard and that was one of the hardest games we have ever had to play," said Andy Shay, Forst Family Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse. "St. Joe's made it tough with their sub game and we knew it would be a formidable challenge, but our guys answered the call."
 
The Hawks scored first in the contest but Yale quickly answered with two goals in less than a minute by Johnson. St. Joe's answered with two of their own, but the Bulldogs had the counter-punch from rookie Chris Lyons who netted one of his three goals followed by an unassisted score by sophomore Patrick Hackler which put the Elis up, 4-3, after one.
 
Saint Joseph's came out strong in the second quarter with four of the first five second-stanza goals, and six of the first eight, to build a 9-6 lead.
 
Yale closed the period with a flurry however as Lyons scored his second with less than two minutes left and Brandau followed with his second goal just 27 seconds later to make it a one-score deficit at the half, 9-8.
 
The Bulldogs kept it going out of the break with scores by Jack Monfort and Lyons to retake the lead. St. Joe's got one back, but the Elis went on to net three of the next four scores capped by Ball's first career score which came right off of a faceoff win which put Yale up 14-11.
 
SJU would not back down as they roared back with a 3-1 run to end the third and start the fourth and tie the game at 15-all with 7:25 left in regulation.
 
Of course, it was yet another first year stepping up for the Bulldogs as Johnson set up his classmate Johnny Keib for the go-ahead score at 6:41. Brandau followed with his fourth of the game two minutes later and though SJU got one back the Elis got its two-goal cushion back thanks to Johnson who matched Brandau's stat line with the score.
 
Sophomore goalie Jared Paquette made 16 saves in the game to improve to 12-4 on the season. He is now up to 206 saves on the season which ranks sixth-best in Yale's single-season record book.