NORTON, Mass. -- Junior attackman Shane Ross (Hanson, Mass.) scored with 51.5 seconds left in overtime to give the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's lacrosse team a 7-6 victory over visiting Curry College this evening in the falling snow at Nordin Field on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass. The Lyons improve to a perfect 6-0 on the season and have yet to allow double-digit goals in any contest. The home team improves on its best start in school history. The Colonels fall to 2-2.

Wheaton was successful on all 21 of its clears and has not failed to clear the ball in three straight games to compile a string of 69 straight clears without a fail. Curry was just as efficient, converting 17 of 19 clear attempts and dominated the face-off with 12 of 17 wins at midfield. The Lyons outshot their guests, 44-32, during a match that resembled the inside of a snow globe from start to finish.

Ross finished with a pair of goals for Wheaton and was matched by junior attacker Robert Sullivan (Newton, Mass.) with a pair of scores of his own to go with a ground ball. Senior midfielder Alex Berg (Southport, Conn.) came up with a career-high nine ground balls and added a goal and a caused turnover, while junior middie Alex Jakubczak (East Lyme, Conn.) paced the defensive effort with a career-best five ground balls in addition to a caused turnover. First year goalie John Drew (North Andover, Mass.) was up to the task with a career-best 13 saves for the Lyons. 

Senior attacker Dane Hanson (East Providence, R.I.) tallied a game-high three goals on five shots to lead the Colonels, while first year attacker Tim Sullivan (East Walpole, Mass.), first year midfielder Brodie Dalzell (Wrentham, Mass.) and junior middie Nick Perfetuo (Norwell, Mass.) each netted a marker for the visitors. Sullivan also added three ground balls and caused a turnover. Sophomore midfielder Anthony Lewis (Middletown, R.I.) picked up seven ground balls and caused three turnovers to lead the defense, while sophomore midfielder Sawyer Allen (Sutton, Mass.) won 15 of 22 faceoffs and came up with seven ground balls. Sophomore starting goalie Evan Falandys (Leominster, Mass.) stopped eight of 12 shots in the opening half, before yielding to senior netminder Bobby Cannan (Bernardsville, N.J.), who turned away 10 of 13 shots in the remaining 33:09 of action.

Following a Curry turnover, Ross gained possession of the ball off the clear and made his way down the right side of the field before ripping a shot from the right side into the back of the net to give Wheaton the win with his ninth goal of the year.

The Lyons thought they had the game won just minutes earlier when Robert Sullivan stormed the net from the right side and unleashed a low shot for his 10th marker of the year to give Wheaton a 6-5 lead with just 11 ticks left on the clock in regulation. The lead was short-lived as Allen won the face-off and made a bee-line into the Lyons' defensive zone, where he found Perfetuo, who was camped out in the left slot for a short one-timer to knot the contest at 6-6 with 3.9 seconds showing on the clock for the Colonels.  

Wheaton's defense controlled the game for the first 32 minutes of the game, holding Curry scoreless for the entire first half, while the Lyons offense scored four times. 

Junior attacker Max Cooper (Tolland, Conn.) took a feed from senior attackman Lou Mainella (Falmouth, Maine) and put Wheaton on the board with 8:07 left in the opening quarter with goal number 10 on the season. Berg increased the home team's lead to 2-0 with his sixth season goal coming at the 3:02 mark of the quarter. Ross tallied his first goal of the night just 77 seconds later to give the Lyons a 3-0 margin with 1:45 to go in the first quarter. Senior attackman Alec Morin (Belmont, Mass.) tallied his sixth score of the year with 13:05 remaining in the half for a 4-0 Wheaton lead that felt like a double-digit lead at the time with the snowy conditions making goals hard to come by. 

The Colonels started to chip away when Tim Sullivan scored the first goal of the second half with 12:11 to go in the third quarter. Hanson cut the margin in half with a feed from junior midfielder Robbie Tartaglia (Wrentham, Mass.) to pull the visitors to within 4-2 with 8:13 showing on the third quarter clock. 

The Lyons took advantage of a Curry penalty when senior attackman Ben Stomberg (Glastonbury, Conn.) fed Robert Sullivan for his second goal of the night and a 5-2 lead for the home team with 6:20 to play in the third quarter. Dalzell answered just 33 seconds later for the Colonels to make it 5-3. Tartaglia set up Hanson again for his third goal of the night coming with just six seconds left in the quarter to make it a one-goal game at 5-4.

Hanson struck again to give Curry three unanswered goals and knot the game at 5-5 with 4:48 to play in a fourth quarter that was devoid of any offense through the first 10 minutes.

Wheaton returns to action on Saturday, March 12 when it heads to Plymouth, N.H. to take on Plymouth State University at 11:00 a.m., while the Colonels host Norwich University at 4:00 p.m. on March 11.