We're taking a look back at all-time great Chestnut Hill College Athletics games as part of our Griffin Classics series. Check out previous stories:
The early days of Chestnut Hill College men's lacrosse were a baptism by fire.
Launching a program in Division II's toughest league, the East Coast Conference (ECC), the Griffins faced off with top-five teams, reigning national champions, and several NCAA tournament-bound squads during their first two seasons.
The Scarlet and Gold played five ranked opponents in that second season in 2011. The first two had not gone their way, with losses against top-ranked C.W. Post and No. 8 Mercy College.
But heading into a mid-March matchup at home with No. 2 Mercyhurst, head coach Brian Dougherty and his staff knew the program was due for a major victory.
"I will never forget coming into [Dougherty's] office while he was preparing the scouting report and he said 'We are going to beat these guys,'" said Mike Terranova, an assistant with the 2011 team and current head coach of the program.
"The more we watched them on film, the more we believed we could pull it off. While it's typical to go into every game you play with confidence you can win, this felt different. Especially in hindsight, this was Coach Doc calling his shot."
Dougherty and Co. weren't just predicting an upset. They were predicting THE upset. Chestnut Hill College had yet to win a game in ECC play – going 0-12 to that point through its first two seasons.
The Lakers, meanwhile, were a senior-laden team coming off a 13-1 campaign. Backed by a defense that didn't concede double-digit goals in a game all season, this team went on to become Mercyhurst's first men's lacrosse national champions later in 2011.
The game had the feel of a mismatch at the start. Mercyhurst rattled off three early goals, while the Griffins were kept off the board well into the second quarter. An eight-save first half from sophomore goalie Dakota Maurer (Lititz, Pa.) kept the Griffins in striking distance and Chestnut Hill College picked up two late goals to make it a one-goal game heading into the break.
"In the second quarter momentum shifted. Dakota started to see the ball very well and our defense had Mercyhurst's game plan pretty well figured out," Terranova said.
Trailing 5-2 late in the third quarter, Chestnut Hill College found its groove.
The Lakers focused their defensive efforts on the Griffins' freshman attack Michael Melnychenko (St. Catharines, Ontario), who would go on to become the program's all-time leading scorer and is a recent Chestnut Hill College Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. That freed other pieces of the offense.
Four different Griffins -- sophomore midfielder Mark Winkelspecht (Laurys Station, Pa.), sophomore attack Shane Morlock (Whitby, Ontario), junior attack Kevin Festa (Auburn, N.Y.), and freshman midfielder Mike Landau (Lancaster, Pa.) -- scored in a second-half 4-0 run to put their team in the lead for the first time in the game with six minutes remaining.
After trading goals in the waning minutes, Chestnut Hill College was one final defensive stand away from claiming the breakthrough win.
The resilient Lakers wouldn't concede yet, scoring with just 12 seconds on the clock to tie it 7-7 and send the game to overtime.
Coached by a former professional and member of the U.S. national team, Chestnut Hill College wasn't going to allow the let off in the final seconds of regulation define this game.
"The best advice [Dougherty] gave us was that whenever you go to overtime, take a breath and relax," Terranova said. "Stress doesn't help you and it isn't what got you to this point, so he brought the team in and had everyone take a deep breath together."
Mercyhurst won the faceoff, but Maurer's 13th save of the game put the ball in the Griffins' sticks with a chance to seal the win.
The Scarlet and Gold wasted no time getting on the attack.
"In today's game, timeouts in overtime are almost a guarantee, but Coach Doc did not call one and let the momentum ride," Terranova said. "In the second half we had had some success against them by attacking from behind the goal with our midfielders and we went straight to that set in overtime."
Landau got the ball just outside the back of the crease, shook off his defender as he made his way in front of goal, and launched a shot as he was fading away that rippled the back of the net.
Chestnut Hill College has racked up no shortage of wins since. Whether it was the road to back-to-back Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) championship games in the past two years or another upset against No. 5 Dowling College later in the 2011 season, the team has established itself as a competitor in the sport.
But for a young program getting its footing, the upset of Mercyhurst gave the Griffins the marquee win they were searching for.
"This game stands out because, in many ways, it put our program on the map," Terranova said. "It was without question the biggest upset of 2011 and arguably one of the biggest upsets ever in college lacrosse."
