Amherst’s first trip to the NCAA Division III men’s semifinal round will find them in a familiar place — a matchup against archrival Williams.
The two New England Small College Athletic Conference schools each advanced to the semifinal round for the first time in school history after pulling off big wins on Wednesday.
Amherst beat another NESCAC squad, Tufts, 13-11 while Williams beat No. 1 ranked RIT 12-11 in double overtime.
The other half of the bracket features another first-time semifinalist — Cabrini — against a team very familiar with postseason success — 12-time NCAA champion Salisbury.
Cabrini beat York 11-10 in overtime while Salisbury beat Denison 19-10.
Amherst 13, Tufts 11
Amherst exploded for seven goals in the first quarter and goalie Gib Versfield made 19 saves to make that early outburst stand up.
Tufts used a five-goal run over the final 11 minutes of the third quarter and into the opening minute of the fourth quarter to get within one goal at 11-10, but Jon Coffey scored for Amherst at 12:02 to end the run. Tufts quickly answered on a man-up goal by Garrett Samuelson with 10:27 left, but Amherst put the game away on Matt Solberg’s goal with 2:15 left.
Evan Wolf led Amherst with three goals and three assists and Coffey also scored three times. Dylan Finazzo won 17 of 26 faceoffs.
Samuelson scored five goals for Tufts and Mason Pollack made 16 saves.
Williams 12, RIT 11 (2 OT)
Kevin Stump’s overtime goal capped a dramatic rally to give Williams the upset of the top-ranked Tigers.
Trailing 11-8 with under seven minutes to play, Stump snapped a six-goal run for RIT with 6:24 remaining. The Ephs remained two goals down when the clock went under two minutes to play, but Jared Strauss scored with 1:36 to play and Brendan Hoffman tied it up with just 57 seconds left in regulation.
After a scorless first overtime, Stump scored with just 58 seconds left in the second overtime after RIT goalie Walker Hare had made two of his 18 saves in the final overtime period.
Stump and John Hincks each scored three goals for Williams and Harry Gahagan made 13 saves, one in the final minute of regulation and two in overtime.
Shawn Nally and Dawson Tait both had three goals and two assists for RIT.
Cabrini 11, York 10
Cabrini scored just one goal in the first half, had only four goals through 46 minutes of play, but poured in six fourth-quarter goals to overcome a three-goal deficit and then Mike Gerzabek scored the game-winner in overtime.
Cabrini scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter to tie the game 7-7. York then took the lead on three separate occasions after that point — the last on Dylan Wolf’s goal with 2:16 to play — but Cabrini had the answer each time, including Kyle Tucker’s goal with 51 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
Tucker and Jordan Krug each scored three goals for Cabrini and Riley White made 15 saves, including five in the fourth quarter.
Hunter Davis, Thomas Pfeiffer and Brendan McGrath each had two goals and an assist for York.
Salisbury 19, Denison 10
Denison had early leads of 2-0 and 3-1, and trailed just 5-4 after the first quarter, but Salisbury scored six straight goals to open the second quarter to take command of the game.
Cross Ferrera led the Gulls with five goals and added an assist and Corey Gwin scored four times. Brett Malamphy was key to Salisbury's success, winning 19 of 23 faceoffs.
Brooks Davy had a hat trick for Denison and Reeves McKenney made 14 saves.