The Guelph Gryphon Lacrosse team advanced to the Baggataway Cup semi-final in Montreal last night, with a 12-10 victory over Bishop's.   
The Gryphons found themselves down 3-2 after the first quarter and down 5-3 midway through the second when Guelph changed gears.  Capitalizing on the power play, Curtis Knight (Oshawa, ON) brought the team to within one and the Taylor Brown (Peterborough, ON) tied it up with 2 minutes left. 

With possession of the ball late in last minute Guelph called the first of two time outs to settle the offense and set up a play.  After getting a good shot off and regaining possession, the Gryphons called another time out.  On the inbounds play, Jordan Critch (Orangeville, ON) made a great feed to Ryan Serville (Pickering, ON) and Serville buried it with 15 seconds left.  Guelph took a 6-5 lead into half time and never looked back.

On the opening face-off of the second half, veteran draw man and team captain Ben Vangalen won the draw cleanly to himself and ran a fast break into the Bishop's end.  He made a nifty pass to Serville who finished the play, scoring Guelph's 7th goal of the game only 11 seconds into the half.  Guelph would capitalize on the momentum, scoring only a minute later on the power play.

When Bishop's gained possession Guelph defense was seemingly impenetrable.   The Gaitors ate up valuable time trying to solve Guelph's defense but longsticks Vangalen, Cooper Catt (Aurora, ON), Matt Lyons (Whitby, ON), DJ Nedelko (Hamilton, ON) and Kris Leblanc (Oakville, ON) along with short stick defenders Brandon Pitts (Streetsville, ON) and Garrett Daly (Mimico, ON) gave little room to the Bishop's attackers.  And when Bishop's was able to get their hands free to shoot, Gryphon net minder Jeremy Snider (Kitchener, ON) was exceptional between the pipes.

Up 9-7 going into the 4th quarter Guelph scored two more early to increase their lead to 11-7; a lead that would prove too much for Bishop's to overcome despite a late game comeback attempt.  Having responded quickly with 2 quick goals of their own, Bishop's brought the game to within 2 but Guelph's  Critch took the air out of the comeback tires 4 minutes remaining putting Guelph up again by three. Bishop's added a late one but the Gryphons controlled the following face off and finished the game with possession.

Jordan Critch lead the points with 2 goals and 4 assists followed by Serville with 5 goals and Knight with 4 goals and one helper.  Connor Deuchars (Toronto, ON) helped with 3 assists and Brown had a goal while Vangalen had an assist.

Guelph will play Brock in the Baggataway Cup semifinal at 4:30pm today in Montreal.    The game will be the third meeting of the two teams this year, with Brock winning both.  The game will be live streamed at : www.ssncanada.ca/games

2013 CUFLA Baggataway Cup Championship Schedule & RESULTS
 
(all matches at Percival Molson Stadium, Montreal)
 
Quarter-finals
Friday, Nov. 1
Queen's 12, Western 11 
Guelph 12, Bishop's 10
 
Semifinals
Saturday, Nov. 2
2:00 p.m. Queen's vs. McGill (www.ssncanada.ca/games/)
4:30 p.m. Guelph vs. Brock (www.ssncanada.ca/games/)
 
Championship Final 
Sunday, Nov. 3
12:30 p.m. Winners of Saturday's semifinals (www.ssncanada.ca/games/)