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Sophomore attacker Mark Pannenton got the best of the RIT defense, leading the Mustangs with five goals on six shots.


regret,” he said — which was a sentiment more easily swallowed after Stevenson held on for a 16-14 victory and the school’s first national championship in any sport. Over the last five years, the Mustangs have made a habit of overcoming obstacles, self-inflicted or otherwise. It started in 2009, just a year after the school changed its name from its former incarnation as Villa Julie. That season, Stevenson vanquished then-CAC rival Salisbury in the NCAA tournament only to lose in the semifinal to Gettysburg. There were two other semifinal losses to Salisbury in 2010 and 2012, plus a stunning one-goal 2011 quarterfinal home loss to Roanoke, a team the Mustangs beat by 10 goals during the regular season. “That’s a game that stuck in my mind from the beginning


of every season since then,” senior attackman Tyler Reid said. “You never want to lose a game with 16 seconds left when you are expected to win.”


Senior midfielder Nick Rossi kept a replica mini-trophy for runners-up from one of the semifinals on his dresser. “Every day I woke up, I looked at it and it really just burned me,” he said.


Stevenson came to Lincoln Financial Field prepared May 26. Although they now play in the middling MAC, under Cantabene’s reign, the Mustangs continued their annual progression of games against non-conference power programs. This year’s nine-game obstacle course included seven teams that eventually made the NCAA tournament, including RIT. They did not win them all, with losses to Tufts and Roanoke. But even those roadblocks provided valuable


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Stevenson coach Paul Cantabene recieved two unsportsmanlike penalties during the title game.


lessons as Stevenson neared its end game. “Both the Tufts and Roanoke losses were like little kicks in the butt to focus back up,” said sophomore Mark Pannenton, whose five-goal outburst against RIT in the NCAA final earned him most outstanding player honor. “Ever since the first day in this locker room when I got here, I could feel it and I truly believe that we had this in us.”


Not all of the Stevenson players had the same zest championship weekend. Stephen Banick, who led the Mustangs in points last year as a freshman and whom Cantabene called the best attackman in the country, missed the entire 2013 season due to injury. “We had injuries nobody knows about,” Cantabene added


cryptically. Sophomore midfielder Chris Dashiell, who led Stevenson with July 2013 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 49


©KEVIN P. TUCKER


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