NEWTON, Mass. – The Norwich University men's lacrosse made a last effort shot to tie up the game but the shot would sail wide as the No. 2-seeded Mount Ida College edged the Cadets, 6-5,  in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Semifinal round on Thursday afternoon. 

Junior midfielder Ryan McCarthy (Medford, Mass.) would score a team-high two goals with senior C.J. Dolan (East Sandwich, Mass.), junior Matt Flaherty (Portland, Maine) and senior Pete Soonthornprapuet (Pelham, N.H.) each recording a goal for NU. Face-off specialist Andrew Bracy (Carthage, N.Y.) would win 10 of the 15 attempts on the face for the Cadets.

Sophomore attackman Lucas Stralka (East Greenwich, R.I.) would led the Mount Ida offense with five goals in the win with junior long pole Steven Koziski (Peabody, Mass.) contributing a goal for the Mustangs.  

The Cadets got off to a quick start with Bracy winning the first face-off of the game as Soonthornprapuet  picked up the ground ball and carried it into the offensive end before pulling the trigger that slipped past Mount Ida's keeper, Cam Hayward (Derry, N.H.) for Norwich's first goal of the game.

After a tight and close quarters battle on both sides of the field, Mount Ida would get on the board off a Ryan Fecteau (Danvers, Mass.) save as Straka scooped up the loose ball and chipped it in for the Mustang goal to make it 1-1.

Dolan would open the second period after he picked up the loose ball and pulled the trigger that would land into the back of the net as the Cadets' take the 2-1 lead.  The back-and-forth action continued throughout the period as both goalies posted five saves throughout the stanza before Mount Ida evened up the score on a fast break play that saw Straka net his second goal of the game as the score remained the same at the break.

The Cadets came out charging out of the gate to retake the 3-2 lead on a Flaherty goal before the Mustangs struck 28 seconds later to knot it at four apiece. The back-and-forth battle continued that resulted with Norwich recording its fourth goal from McCarthy before Stralka slipped through the Cadets' defense to record his fourth goal, tying the contest once again.

With just 1:53 remaining in the third period, McCarthy would score his second goal of the game to give Norwich the 5-4 lead, however the Mustangs quickly diminished the lead 22 seconds later for the 5-5 tie after three periods of play.

The Cadets piled on 11 shots in the fourth period to Mount Ida's two, however it would just take one of those two shots for the ball to land into the back of the net as Stralka chipped in the eventual game-winning goal to put Mount Ida ahead, 6-5, with 7:09 on the board. Norwich looked to tie it up, piling on shots after shots, but time would run out as the Cadets saw the season come to an end.

Fecteau would come up with nine saves in the game for the Cadets, while Hayward turned away 11 shots in the Mustang's win. Norwich outshot Mount Ida, 33-21 and came up with 46 ground balls to the Mustangs' 25.

The Cadets close the 2015 campaign with a 7-8 overall record and finished 4-4 in league play on the year.