Monday night on Petznick Field, Xavier Lacrosse essentially played their equal versus the Higley Knights. Chances are very high that when the regular season ends this Friday, Xavier and Higley will have identical, fourth-place, 7-6 records.

The Knights never trailed the Gators during the forty-eight minutes of regulation play, and the score was tied only twice. Higley led by as much as three. For all practical purposes, Higley was always on top, but they could never shake off those pesky Gators. Xavier never gave up the fight.

Higley had scored three goals in each of the first three quarters -- a scary trend for Xavier going into the 4th and final quarter down by two.

With a little more than six minutes remaining in the game, nothing had changed, but time was running out for Xavier. And then, senior Amelia Busch scored, but Xavier needed one more. 

Almost six minutes later and with twenty seconds remaining, Xavier called a timeout, still down by one.

It took the Gators fifteen amazing seconds to tie the score: a long, near-miss shot on goal; a recovery of the loose ball; an awesome pass from behind the net; and a no-catch, slap shot to the back of the net that provoked a loud celebration of relief on the field and in the stands. The pesky Gators had just forced overtime.

Of course, you know that Xavier, being the first team to score in overtime, won game 10-9.

I'm not going to describe the winning goal because you can watch the whole story -- including the final goal -- unfold before your eyes as you witness every Xavier score in the narrated video below.

The ten goals scored by Xavier were provided by Amelia Busch (4), Claire McCloskey (2), Mackenna Packer (2) (plus an assist), Addison Karsnitz (1), and Sammy Schubert (1). Mia Calihan provided an assist for one of McCloskey's goals.