The men's lacrosse team lost a nail biter tonight (Sept. 20), falling 10-9 to the Brock Badgers. The Gryphons record drops to 1-1 on the season.

Despite dominating the first quarter and opening up a 4-0 lead, the Gryphons missed some opportunities early in the second quarter and were unable to sustain the momentum that they built early in the game. The Gryphons took a number of penalties in the second allowing Brock to score 4 unanswered goals to tie it and then another to take the lead, 5-4. Guelph finally stopped the Brock tide with an equalizer from Jason Mainer, but with less than 30 seconds left in the half, the Gryphons again relinquished the lead and were down a goal at the half.

In the second half, the tempo changed significantly as both teams limited each other's transition opportunities and had to play each other 6 on 6. Midfielder turned attack man Sean Thomson had a couple for Guelph in the 3^rd quarter as the teams traded goals.

Down 8-7 going into the final frame Guelph tried to pick up the tempo but they were not as sharp as they needed to be. Penalties and poor ball control hampered their comeback. Things looked promising for the Gryphons with 2:30 left and the game tied at 9, Brock took a 2 minute penalty. The Gryphons were however, unable to capitalize on the opportunity and as the penalty ended, a fluke broken stick took a Gryphon defender out of the play and gave Brock an odd man rush that they converted on.

Guelph wasn't done however. They fought hard on the ensuing face off and battled to regain possession of the ball. With 17 seconds remaining, using one of their remaining time outs, the Gryphons set up a play that resulted in an early shot and then another with only seconds left. Unfortunately, neither was able to find the back of the net and the Gryphons came away empty.

Defensively, the Gryphons played Brock tough. The long sticks pushed the ball up field several times, creating odd-man rushes for the offense. And, on several occasions, Gryphon goalie Gary Muzzin kept Brock from blowing the game wide open.

"It was a tough loss for us" said Coach Kosakowski, "but we can take away a number of things to work on. We need to minimize our mistakes and work harder to capitalize when we have chances".

Gryphon scoring was led by Sean Thomson (Burlington, ON) with 3 goals and 3 assists. Rusty Poulton (Toronto, ON) and Jason Mainer (Orillia, ON) had 2 goals each, while Scott Fitchett (Scarborough, ON) and Spencer Joyce (Hillsborough, ON) added singles.

The Gryphons fall to 1-1 on the season and will next see action this coming weekend when they travel to Laurentian to play on Friday and Saturday.