Catawba Beats Mars Hill in Overtime

MARS HILL, N.C. - Braden Artem scored on a breakaway with 3:16 on the clock in the second overtime period to lift the Catawba Indians to a 10-9 victory over no. 9 Mars Hill in the semifinals of the Deep South Conference Tournament Thursday night in the Ammons Family Athletic Center and Meares Stadium. Mars Hill ends their season with 10-4 overall record while Catawba improved to 11-3 on the season.

Artem led Catawba with three goals and an assist followed by Casey Chinn with the same number of goals scored. Cory Losselyong added two goals for Catawba. Michael Pecchia played all 64:44 in goal for Catawba and made 11 saves.

Tim Burns led MHC scoring two goals. T.J. Cowx scored one goal and provided his teammates with a pair of assists. Chris Cudmore and Cade Zulak each posted one goal and one assist in the contest. Dylan Price also played the entire game in the net for MHC and made seven saves.

MHC out shot Catawba, 33-27. Catawba won the ground ball battle, 33-23 and won 13-23 face-offs. MHC was 2-4 on extra-man opportunities while Catawba was 0-9.
Burns put the Lions on the board just 2:10 minutes into the contest. He scored off a pass from Cowx. Chinn tied the contest at 1-all at the 4:05 mark. Artem assisted the goal.
Losselyong gave the Catawba Indian their first lead of the contest with 12:02 left in the first half. His goal was unassisted. Less than three minutes later Freddie Turcio scored an unassisted goal to extend Catawba's advantage to 3-1 at the 9:23 mark.

Cowx brought the Lions within one (3-2) of Catawba with 5:47 left in the opening half. Zulak found Cowx on the scoring play to record the assist. Adam Traynor then tied the contest at 3-all with 2:39 left in the second quarter when he broke loose on a breakaway.

Tom Cullop picked up a ground ball and passed it to Artem who found the back of the net with 12 seconds left in the first half to give Catawba a 4-3 lead at the intermission. MHC edged Catawba in shots 13-12 in the opening half. Shots on goal were tied at nine apiece. Catawba won the first half ground ball battle, 15-12 and won 5-9 face-offs in the first two quarters.

Burns scored from 20 yards out with just over 11 minutes left in regulation to tie the game at 6-6. At the 8:29 mark in the final period, Kyle Garrett gave MHC their first lead (7-6) since early in the first quarter. His goal was assisted by Cowx. Just over a minute later (7:23) Losselyong scored unassisted to knot the game at 7-7. Zulak put the Lions up 8-7 scoring an unassisted goal of his own with 6:04 left on the clock. Catawba then scored two unanswered goals beginning with a goal from Trevor Sieracki at the 4:23 mark and then Chinn added his third goal of the game at the 4:06 mark to give Catawba a 9-8 lead. Cullop assisted the Sieracki's goal while John Scheich assisted Chinn's score.

Cowx then scored his second goal of the night with 1:35 left in regulation to tie the game (9-9) for the seventh time on the night. Neither team could score in the final ticks of regulation and the game was sent into overtime.

Catawba will face Florida Southern College on Sunday afternoon in the finals of the Deep South Conference Tournament. FSC defeated Saint Leo University 12-4 Thursday night to advance to the finals. Saint Leo will host the Championship game.