SPARKILL, N.Y. – Freshman midfielder Van George scored his first collegiate goal with 1:27 left in regulation for Post University Men's Lacrosse, which looked to send the Eagles to their third straight win on Wednesday afternoon against St. Thomas Aquinas College on the road. 

However, freshman midfielder Austin Maybee's game-tying goal with 14 seconds left on the man-down and freshman midfielder Nicola Greer's overtime goal for the Spartans resulted in a heartbreaker for Post, who had their two-game winning streak snapped with the 12-11 overtime defeat. 

THE BASICS

Post University 11, St. Thomas Aquinas College 12 (OT)

Post University (2-2)

St. Thomas Aquinas College (2-2)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Breaking a scoreless drought of 61:21 without a goal against the Eagles, freshman attacker Lucas Mullen put the Spartans ahead by two within the first 2 ½ minutes of the game, marking the first time since March 8th, 2022 when the two teams faced off that St. Thomas Aquinas led Post, taking a 1-0 lead in the first quarter of that matchup. 

Making his way closer to the 200-point mark, senior attacker Robbie McGrayne got the Eagles on the board followed by back-to-back goals from junior attacker Leighton Cooke, all in the first quarter, in what would become a back-and-forth battle between the two teams the rest of the way. Neither side would go ahead by more than two goals from the time Cooke scored that goal to make it a 3-2 game with Post opening up a two-goal lead on three occasions, which would be answered back by St. Thomas Aquinas College each time. 

Scoring four times today, graduate attacker Hunter McCarty reached the 100 career goals mark as he had 91 goals scored at Concordia University before adding 10 more goals here at Post to bring his career total to 101. McCarty finished the game with five points, tacking on an assist in the fourth quarter on McGrayne's goal which at the time would be a go-ahead goal for the Eagles who led 9-8 at that point.

Throughout the game, six goals between the two teams were scored via penalties as two man-down goals were scored by St. Thomas Aquinas College and one by Post. The Spartans also led the Eagles in man-up goals, in which they had two of their own, to the one for Post, which would be a major factor down the stretch of regulation. Trailing by two goals, Mullen's man-up score followed by Greer's man-up goal with 1:49 left in regulation tied the game back up at 10 all after the third goal of the day for Cooke had given the Eagles a two-goal lead.

Then came the seemingly unlikely hero in George, who gave Post the lead back with 1:27 remaining on his wraparound shot and just 14 seconds later Mullen's would draw a one-minute body checking penalty, putting the Spartans a man down while trailing by one. Enter in Maybee, whose heroics in the man-down situation tied the game up with 14 seconds left, sending the affair to overtime for Greer to complete the improbable comeback for the Spartans, 12-11.

In addition to snapping a two-game winning streak for the Eagles, the Spartans broke their three-game losing streak in the all-time series having last beaten Post during the 2020 campaign at LaMoy Field, 9-8, before losing those three matchups, including a 21-0 shutout last spring at LaMoy Field. St. Thomas Aquinas College's last win at home against the Eagles came just before that in 2019, a 9-4 victory. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• Robbie McGrayne totaled three points via his three goals today as he gets closer to Dylan Heald's (2021-24) all-time point record, which is currently 202 points – McGrayne now sits at 185 points in his career, needing just 18 points to break Heald's record 
• Ryan Denike added one more assist today, closing in on the 100 Point Club as he now sits at 99 points in his career – Denike would be the sixth member of the 100th Point Club in program history to reach the mark
• Scoring four times today, Hunter McCarty reached the 100 career goal mark between his time at Concordia University and now Post University – McCarty had five total points today, bringing him to 163 career points 
• This is the first time that Post University has gone to overtime since March 3rd, 2023, when they lost 16-15 to the College of Saint Rose – The Eagles are now 3-5 in program history in games going to overtime with one of those going to double overtime during the 2014 season
• Currently on pace to break another record, Robbie McGrayne needs to play in at least six more games this season for Post University to become the all-time leader in career games played by three different players in Jack Kearney, Frank Nichols Jr., and Peter Naboka with 55 games played each 

WHO'S NEXT
Post University returns home for one game this Saturday at 12:00 PM against Molloy University in hopes of getting their first win in program history against the Lions, who they are 0-7 against in the all-time series.