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Sam Shafer is 6-foot-3, 235 pounds. Loyola’s senior goalie needed all his big body frame to make the last-second save that will go down as one of the most clutch plays in recent NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament memory.

Shafer denied Denver’s Alex Simmons on the doorstep before time expired to preserve Loyola’s 14-13 win Sunday over the seventh-seeded Pioneers, exasperating the sold-out 40-percent capacity crowd at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium and sending the Greyhounds to the NCAA quarterfinals. It was Shafer’s 16th save of the game.

“We talked about getting to 15 saves to have a chance,” Loyola coach Charley Toomey said afterward on ESPNU. “It had to be 16, and the last one was the biggest one.”

The Greyhounds had the ball with a one-goal lead and 32.5 seconds remaining. Facing a double team out of a timeout, Aidan Olmstead floated a pass toward Kevin Lindley behind the goal that bounced near the end line before Denver defenseman Colin Squires swooped in for the ground ball and sent it to the middle of the field.

Several players fumbled the ball attempting to corral it before Loyola’s Matt Higgins knocked it out of bounds. Squires found Jack Hannah with an inbound pass. Hannah spun away from Higgins and fed Simmons on a backdoor cut with five seconds left. Simmons’ momentum took him across the face of the goal one-on-one with Shafer. He faked once, then tried to tuck a shot inside the near pipe.

Shafer kicked out his leg and reached with his stick toward the far pipe but kept his body nearside, deflecting Simmons’ shot with his right shoulder.

“I saw Simmons cut underneath on the feed. I knew he didn’t have too good of an angle,” Shafer said, describing the sequence during a post-game press conference via Zoom. “I just stood tall, held my ground and tried to match his stick.”

Jackson Morrill could not come up with rebound. Higgins grabbed it instead and cleared the ball to Loyola’s attacking side of the midfield, where Evan James caught it one-handed and then hoisted it into the air as the rest of the Greyhounds rushed the field to celebrate.

With Shafer, specifically.

“We’ve gone through this program four years together,” said Olmstead, who finished with a career-high five goals. “He’s got a big heart, a hard head and he’s good at saving the ball.”

“It’s just been an emotional roller coaster,” said Toomey, whose team had to forfeit the Patriot League championship game last week due to a positive COVID-19 test but made the NCAA tournament as an at-large selection. “They’re playing their best lacrosse, and they just wanted to stay together as a group.”

Few have experienced the ups and downs of this season quite like Shafer, a senior goalie who briefly lost the starting job as Loyola stumbled to a 5-5 record through 10 games — no one’s idea of a championship contender.

Shafer was pulled against Army and then did not start Loyola’s senior game against Navy. He returned to a full-time role in the goal in a win over Lafayette and made 13 saves in a top-10 win over Georgetown that propelled the Greyhounds into the Patriot League playoffs.

“I love him. I’ve never stopped loving him,” Toomey said. “Sometimes you’ve got to find your way again.”

Loyola kept the momentum going from there, trouncing Navy in the conference quarterfinals and edging Army in the semifinals two days later, only to find out it would not get the opportunity to play Lehigh for the Patriot League title.

The NCAA men’s lacrosse committee nonetheless saw it fit to include the Greyhounds in the 16-team field, and lacrosse fans were rewarded Sunday night with the best game of the first round between two former ECAC rivals.

After trailing 2-1 early, Loyola rattled off five unanswered goals and outscored Denver 7-2 in the second quarter to take a 9-4 lead into halftime.

Olmstead provided the spark with four first-half goals, scoring on a pair of interior opportunities, dusting off the turf with a low long-range bounce shot and then converting on a fluky no-look feed that floated into the net.

Denver came out firing in the third quarter. Kyle Smith scored as Loyola got caught subbing and then Hannah ripped one down the left alley just 35 seconds later to pull the Pioneers within three. Morrill made it 9-7, curling from behind the goal to receive a pass from Simmons and depositing it in the back of the net.

After Lindley scored to put Loyola ahead 10-7, Denver’s TD Ierlan (17-for-19) won the next faceoff, found Morrill at the point and got the assist when his former Yale teammate sent an overhand shot into the lower third of the goal to keep the Pioneers within two.

Loyola just kept answering. Fading away from traffic, Peter Swindell received a pass from Adam Poitras in the left shooting alley and unleashed a high-to-low shot past Denver goalie Jack Thompson to make it 11-8.

Morrill continued his strong third quarter, however, assisting Hannah for a man-up goal and then scoring with 27 seconds left to get Denver within one.

The Pioneers got that close twice more but couldn’t get a shot past Shafer when it mattered most. Ierlan won all six faceoffs in the fourth quarter and Denver went man-up with three minutes left after Hannah scored to make it 14-13, absorbing a late illegal hit from Loyola’s Payton Rezanka.

The pro-Denver crowd came to life, singing along to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and then growing quieter as the bells tolled in DU’s iconic Williams Tower.

Little did they know it was Shafer’s moment.

Hannah drew another foul and almost scored anyway, but Shafer stuffed him as he jumped into the crease.

After Hannah had a shot blocked on the ensuing extra-man opportunity, Shafer swallowed up the loose ball.

The Greyhounds turned the ball over on the clear, and Denver’s Lucas Cotler narrowly missed the goal on a shot that went wide with 56 seconds left. The Pioneers did not have anyone backing up the goal, so Shafer spun off his post and chased the ball to the end line to win the restart.

That should have sealed the Loyola win. Instead, the Greyhounds needed their big goalie to come up big one more time.

“These kids, they just battle,” Toomey said. “They play so freaking hard for me and us coaches. I think our best lacrosse is ahead of us.”

Loyola will play second-seeded Duke in the NCAA quarterfinals next Sunday at Notre Dame’s Arlotta Stadium.