ST. CATHARINES, ON - The Gryphons men's lacrosse team advanced to the 2016 Baggataway Cup semifinals, with a dominant 18-9 win over Bishop's Friday night (Nov. 4) at Brock University. The Gryphons avenged their 6-5 loss to the Gaiters in last year's quarterfinal.

After a clean face off win by Josh Manangan (Rexdale, ON) to open the game, the Gryphons settled into their offence and just two and a half minutes in, James Short (Kitchener, ON) put the first goal on the board for the Gryphons. The Gryphons then squandered several good scoring opportunities and allowed the Gaiters a little hope. After a missed assignment by the Gryphon defence, the game was tied and then shortly thereafter, Bishop's crawled to a 2-1 lead. 

On a strong individual effort, Gryphon midfielder Brett Ulibkas (Oakville, ON) tied the game at with 5:40 remaining, but shortly thereafter, a brief lapse in judgment resulted in the Gryphons taking their first penalty of the game. Called to the task, the Gryphon man-down defence, anchored by net-minder Mike Lalani (Guelph, ON) forced a turnover and killed the remainder of the penalty. The Gryphons converted the resulting possession into their third goal of the game when midfielder Todd Greer (Mulmur, ON) found an open Ulbikas who buried the opportunity.

With less than 2 minutes remaining in the quarter, and holding on to a slim 1 goal lead, Guelph once again found itself in penalty trouble, taking two penalties back to back.  The Gryphon man-down unit was once again up to the challenge, killing both penalties to maintain their 3-2 lead. Less than a minute into the second quarter, a Gryphon shot rang off the crossbar and rebounded to the feet of quick thinking Gryphon attackman Liam Corbett (Burltington, ON). Corbett scooped up the loose ball, dodged inside and buried Guelph's fourth goal of the game. Bishop's would answer shortly thereafter to keep the game within one goal but with 7:40 remaining in the quarter, took a 30 second offside penalty. 

On their second power play of the game, the Gryphons moved the ball sharply and Ulbikas fed Zack Luis on the wing. Luis fired a laser to the top left corner and gave the Gryphons another two goal lead. Luis' goal would be the last of the second quarter, but the first of a 7 goal run that took the Gryphons deep into the 3rd quarter. Five different Gryphons would contribute to the explosion of third quarter goals, including an end-to-end run by rookie longstick-defensmen Liam Patten (Barrie, ON) who fought for and won a loose ball in the Gryphon end, outran several Gaiters up the sideline and then took the ball to the net to bury a goal to the top right corner.

With less than 4 minutes remaining in the 3^rd the Gryphons held a comfortable 11-3 lead.  However, two late quarter Bishop's goals, followed by a Gryphon slashing penalty at the end of the quarter had the Gryphons on their heels.  Bishop's opened the 4^th quarter on the power play and would this time, convert.  They called a time out, won the ensuring face off, and scored again, less 30 seconds later to cut the Gryphon lead to 11-7.

After allowing 4 unanswered goals the Gryphons finally regained possession of the ball and Mike Cavanagh (Peterborough, ON) put an end to the Bishop's run. He took his defender one on one, rolled inside to the crease and scored Guelph's 12^th goal of the game. Another untimely penalty cost the Gryphons again and the Gryphon lead was cut to 12-8. Bishop's would score again to get it to 12-9 as it looked like the momentum was swinging in their favour with half of the quarter still remaining to be played. But the cagey veterans Ulbikas and Cavanagh would hook up to put a final end to the Bishop's comeback. Cavanagh would score two in the last 10 minutes and Ulbikas would record 3. Liam Corbett had his second of the game to complete a 6 goal Gryphon scoring run that would see the Gryphons finish off the Gaiters 18-9.

"We were gripping our sticks a little too tightly in the first half", said Gryphon Coach Sam Kosakowski. "We needed to relax, settle down and protect the ball when we had possession. Our second half was much better and both our offense and defense responded very well."

Ulbikas lead all point-getters with 6 goals and 3 assists. Cavanagh ended the game with 5 goals and 1 assist. James Short and Liam Corbett had 2 and 1 each while Greer, Luis, Patten and Jackson Nishimura (Toronto, ON) all had singles.

The win advances the Gryphons to the 2016 Baggataway Cup semifinal against Western. Not only will the Gryphons be playing for a spot in their third Baggataway Cup final in 4 years, they will be looking to avenge two losses to Western during this year's regular season.

The game will be broadcast live online at Brock TV and is scheduled for 4pm on Saturday, Nov. 5.