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Lewis Scores Four as MIT Downs Iona 10-9 in Eastern Championship Seventh Place Game
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Devin Lewis (Jr., San Francisco, Calif.) scored four goals, including a pair of penalty shots, to key the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to a 10-9 win over Iona College in the seventh place game at the 2008 Eastern Championship hosted by the United States Naval Academy.
The win marks MIT's first over a team in the Eastern Championship field this year and avenged a 12-11 loss by the Engineers to the Gaels in the Northern Division third place game. Overall, MIT entered Easterns 0-9 against Princeton, St. Francis, Johns Hopkins, Iona, Bucknell, Brown and Navy, including an 0-2 record against Iona (14-8 L, 12-11 L).
Iona gained the early advantage in the game as Joe Przekota (Jr., Park Ridge, Ill.) scored at 6:42 of the first period. MIT stormed back with an exclusion goal by Brian Gardiner (So., Upland, Calif.) at 6:22 and a natural score by Mike Smith-Bronstein (Sr., Mercer Island, Wash.) at 5:43 to put the Engineers in front 2-1.
However, the Gaels closed the period with a successful penalty shot by Przekota at the 52 seconds mark to even the score at 2-2.
MIT pulled away to a mini-lead to open the second period on back-to-back tallies by Lewis and Mark Artz (Jr., Deerfield Beach, Fla.) at 6:26 and 4:15, respectively, to go ahead 4-2. The teams traded goals from there to a 6-5 MIT lead at halftime.
Przekota pulled Iona to within one at 4-3 with a penalty shot score at 3:52, Alex Mattfolk (So., Boca Raton, Fla.) regained the goal for MIT with a natural marker at 3:32 and Nick Velasquez (Sr., Chicago, Ill.) tipped in shot at 3:06 to set the score at 5-4 in favor of the Engineers.
MIT regained a two goal margin with 45 seconds left in the half as Artz scored on an advantage chance, but Seth Tasman (So., Orlando, Fla.) buried a penalty shot with 28 ticks on the clock to divide the lead to one at 6-5.
Lewis racked up his second goal of the day 1:24 into the third period and Matt Perkins (So., Dallas, Texas) chipped in an even strength goal with 2:25 left to engineer an 8-5 margin. The deficit lasted for 2:09 as Trevor Creighton (Fr., Winter Park, Fla.) found the back of the cage for the Gaels at 2:09 to shave the lead down to 8-6. The Engineers closed the period with a successful penalty shot by Lewis with 1:53 on the clock as MIT carried a 9-6 lead into the fourth period.
The Gaels eradicated their deficit in 5:06 thanks to the play of Przekota who ripped home a penalty shot at 6:00 and registered an even-strength marker at 5:15 to put Iona within striking distance at 9-8. Iona erased the lead completely at the 3:54 mark of the period with an exclusion score by Creighton to knot the game at 9-9.
Playing without Smith-Bronstein, who received a red card following Creighton's score, the Engineers turned to Lewis who delivered the game-winner off another penalty shot with 3:35 to play for the 10-9 final.
Overall, six of the 19 goals in the game came off penalty shots, including three of the eight in the second half and two in the final eight minutes of play.
In cage, Columbus Leonard (Fr., San Francisco, Calif.) made nine saves to earn the win, while Eric Konzem (So., Humble, Texas) blocked away a shot in the first and one in the fourth period.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| MIT | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 10 |
| Iona | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
Iona Goals: Joe Przekota (5); Trevor Creighton (2); Nick Velasquez; Seth Tasman
MIT Goals: Devin Lewis (4); Mark Artz (2); Mike Smith-Bronstein; Alex Mattfolk; Brian Gardiner; Matt Perkins
Saves: Iona - Eric Konzem (2) ; MIT - Columbus Leonard (9)
Ejections: Iona - 7 ; MIT - 8
Sprints: Iona - 2 (3rd & 4th - Seth Tasman) ; MIT - 2 (1st & 2nd - Matt Chapa)
