Columbia, MD – An incredible game of back and forth action ended in a dramatic overtime victory for the #4 seed Dragons, as they defeated the #5 seed Genesee Cougars 12-11 to advance to the final four.
 
Coming into the game confident after a 12-6 victory over Genesee in the regular season, Howard was constantly playing catch up in the game as they tied the game three different times in the first quarter on goals by Jeremy Sforzo (Vail, CO/Battle Mountain), Joseph Montesano (Edgewater, MD/Damascus), and Jackson Krasny (Hagerstown, MD/St. Maria Goretti).

After a man-up goal by Genesee to take the lead 4-3 early in the second quarter, Bobby Solomon (Fairfax, VA/Woodson) answered 20 seconds later and Krasny doubled up a minute after that to give the Dragons their first lead of the game. Genesee would go on to tie the game a couple minutes later and would score a goal with less than a second left in the first half to take a 6-5 lead into the halftime break.
 
Things continued to look up for the Cougars after the break as they score a minute into the third quarter to take their first two goal lead of the game. With time running time on the shot clock, Montesano was able to get around his defender and score just as the shot clock ended to give the Dragons a much needed goal.
 
Genesee's Jason Chiodo would answer with two more goals on his way to a four goal night to give the Cougars a three goal lead and seemingly all the momentum. But once again the Dragons fought back as Colvin Prosser (Kennesaw, GA/Lassiter) scored on a Sforzo assist just 10 seconds later and then the two would combine again a few minutes later to get the home town faithful buzzing.
 
That positive energy persisted into the fourth quarter as Solomon scored to tie the game and Prosser completed his hat trick two minutes after that to give the Dragons their first lead of the contest. Chiodo scored again to tie the game at 10-10 with five minutes left, but Joe Beville (Gaithersburg MD/Quince Orchard) came through with an incredible shot into the top left corner of the net to put Howard ahead again.
 
Genesee won the ensuing face-off and a shot by the Cougars Zach Wade was saved by Howard's goalkeeper Tim Russell (Catonsville, MD/Catonsville) for his 18^th save of the game. Wade was able to scoop up the rebound and score to tie the game at 11-11 and force the game into overtime despite another Wade shot in the last minute that hit the metal work.
 
Howard won the face-off to start the overtime period and Prosser had a shot saved by the Cougar's Lincoln Potter. The Genesee goalkeeper tried a quick outlet pass that missed the mark and went out of bounds to give the ball back to Howard. Drew Goode (Gambrills, MD/Arundel) had his shot go wide of the net, but Howard would keep possession and eventually get it to Jack Watsic (Frederick, MD/Linganore) who was able to back his defender down and score on a low bouncing shot to keep the Dragons' season alive in dramatic fashion.
 
With the win, the Dragons earn a place in the NJCAA National Tournament final four where they will travel to Batavia, New York where Genesee Community College will host the last three games of the season that will see Howard take on the #1 seed Nassau Lions on Saturday, May 18 at 1 PM in the semifinals. The Dragons fell at Nassau in the regular season in a hard fought 19-11 contest.