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HAMILTON – Payton Gabriel (Lakewood, Colorado) provided the overtime heroics Saturday afternoon as she scored the game-winning goal with 1:59 to go in overtime to lift the Colgate women's lacrosse team to a 13-12 victory over the Lafayette Leopards.
 
After trailing by a pair of goals, the Raiders scored three of the four goals in the final 4:59 of regulation before Gabriel's first career overtime game-winner.
 
Natalie Washuta (Chatham, New Jersey) and Haley O'Hanlon (Garden City, New York) celebrated senior day in style as each scored goals late to tie the game with 2:03 to go in regulation. With the score tied, the Raiders ran a trick play for Madeline Barcia (Manhasset, New York) to score a go-ahead goal with 1:27 to play and take a 12-11 lead.
 
Just as the Leopards did all afternoon long, they answered back to tie the game with 18.2 seconds left in the second half on Bella Alampi's third goal of the game.
 
Colgate controlled much of the play in overtime, including wins on both draw controls, to lead to Gabriel's game-winning goal.
 
Neither team managed to hold more than a one-goal lead in the first half and Colgate didn't take the game's first two-goal lead until there was 25:07 left in the second half on back-to-back goals from Danielle Van Calcar (Wyckoff, New Jersey) and Washuta to take an 8-6 lead.
 
After trading the next two goals, Lafayette scored four consecutive goals to turn a 9-7 deficit into an 11-9 lead with 13:07 to go in the second half. Neither team scored for a stretch of 8:08 before Colgate got back into its scoring rhythm to get right back in the game before winning in overtime.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 13, Lafayette 12 (OT)
 
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders clinched a berth in the Patriot League Tournament to improve to 10-6 (5-4 PL) while the Leopards season comes to a close with a final record of 5-12 (2-7 PL)
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Colgate clinched a postseason berth in the Patriot League Tournament for the first time since 2016 and will host their first postseason game since 2011
-The Raiders also won their fifth straight senior day game dating back to the 2014 season
-Colgate's 10 wins are it's most since recording 10 in the 2015 season
-Gabriel tallied her fourth hat trick of the season and recorded five points in a game for the third time in her career
-Van Calcar also picked up a five-point game behind two goals and three assists in addition to two draw controls and two groundballs
-Van Calcar now has 68 draw controls this season, one shy of tying O'Hanlon's program record of 69 from the 2015 season
-Washuta notched a pair of goals and had four draw controls while Tara Atkinson (Lloyd Harbor, New York) buried a pair of goals and had two groundballs
-O'Hanlon stuffed the stat sheet once again with a goal and an assist, four groundballs, three draw controls and three caused turnovers
-She moved into fourth in program history with 73 caused turnovers, passing the 72 from Kate Manzella '00
-Barcia scored her first career goal late in the second half, caused a turnover and had three groundballs to anchor the defense
-Kristen Brigagliano (Brightwaters, New York) scored a goal and had three groundballs while Natalie Gwynn (Canandaigua, New York) had a goal as well

FACTS AND FIGURES
-Lafayette held a slight 33-32 advantage in shots while both teams record 22 shots on goal
-The Raiders had 15 turnovers compared to the Leopards' 18
-Colgate was 14 for 21 in clears while Lafayette was 13 for 16
-The Leopards also had a 17-11 advantage in draw controls but Colgate controlled both in the overtime period
 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Heather Young
Thoughts on Saturday's game
"Lafayette played an amazing game, kudos to them. Their big guns were on fire and their defense was locked in, plus their goalie had a great game as well. I'm extremely proud of our players remaining very disciplined and getting a couple of crucial draws in overtime. Lafayette crushed us on the draw overall but I'm proud that the girls stuck to the game plan, especially when we threw some curveballs at them with Mads coming over to try and score, which she did.
 
"To have this senior class go out this way is one of the best feelings that you can have. You could tell the team was rallying behind them because the four of them have been super strong and steady, as well as amazing leaders.
 
On Madeline Barcia's late second half goal
"Mads' goal was huge. When we called up the play I said 'Mads, you're going to run over the line' and she said, 'And do what?' I told her she was going to shoot and score, and she said okay. She's a midfielder at heart but she's such a great defender that we need her back on defense a lot. 
 
"She shoots a lot in practice so I knew she was going to have a good open lane. There's a lot of pressure on Haley, defenders are always attracted to her and we thought it would be a good opportunity to try it."
 
On Payton Gabriel's performance
"Payton had a great day. She was amazing in the ride and was great cutting back to the ball. She had an opportunity in the first part of overtime to win it and didn't get the goal but had the confidence to take it on the winner was awesome."
 
On hosting a playoff game Tuesday
"It's been a goal of ours since the end of last season to host a postseason game. Kudos to the four seniors because they did an amazing job building the culture and mindset that we deserve to be top four with a home playoff game on Tuesday.
 
"I give all the credit to them for being disciplined and giving up so much of their college life to make sure that Colgate lacrosse is where it needs to be."
 
Sophomore Payton Gabriel
On her game-winning goal
"It started with the draw by Noelle for sure on that last one. It changed the momentum of the overtime and she got the ball down safely to us. Our whole team gave me space and I got the go-ahead to shoot."
 
On fighting back from a late deficit
"We had a game plan, some of it wasn't working so we decided to switch it up. We had a fun play to set up Mads for the goal that ended up working and then it spiraled upwards from there"
 
On hosting a postseason game
"We're super psyched about hosting Tuesday. It's always great to be on your home field and hopefully we'll get that win."
 
Junior Madeline Barcia
On scoring her first career goal
"It was very exciting to get my first career goal. When coach pulled me over to say we were going to run a play that we haven't really practiced, she said Haley was going to pretend to come back over and you're going to cut through the open lane. I said, 'I'm going to shoot?' and she said yes. It was really exciting but I wouldn't have been able to do that without my teammates."
 
On winning in overtime
"This is our third overtime game this season so being able to get that one after two tough ones earlier this year was great for us, third time is always the charm.
 
On hosting a postseason game
"Having a home game this week is going to be huge. My freshman year we traveled and last year we didn't make the tournament so it's great for our team and our program to be able to host the quarterfinal. It's going to be great."
 
UP NEXT
Colgate hosts Boston University on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the Patriot League Quarterfinals with game time set for 4 p.m. at Beyer-Small '76 Field.