Courtesy of Maddy Dombal ’26
On April 1, 2026 the Camels hosted Trinity for a big rivalry game and made the Bantams look like a bunch of April fools with an epic overtime comeback win for the ages with a score of 16-15. The Camels trailed by as many as nine points in the second half and were forced to overcome a tremendous amount of adversity to erase such a large deficit late in such a big game.
In the first half, it was all Trinity as after an even first quarter of play ending in Conn being down 5-4, Trinity turned it on. They began to run away with the game in the 2nd quarter shutting Conn out in the 2nd quarter to take a convincing 10-4 lead into half time. Things only got worse to start the second half as Trinity went on a 3-0 run and killed the idea of a potential momentum swing in favor of the camels to start the second half.
At this point, the Camels were staring down the barrel of very disappointing loss in a very winnable game for them. They were down nine to a team who was only 1-3 in the NESCAC at the time and they were throwing away their opportunity to claim a much needed NESCAC win themselves after losing their first four NESCAC games to Middlebury, Hamilton, Williams, and Colby. But the Camels began to show some life with four straight goals in the middle of the 3rd quarter, two from Liam Horkan ‘26 and one each from Jack Walker ‘29 and Hayden Carpenter. Trinity then scored one to stunt Conn’s momentum.
Heading into the 4th quarter, the Camels were now down 14-8. With this large deficit and such little time left, it would have been easy to give up and throw in the towel but the Camels refused to give up and kept fighting. “I think every time we huddled up, we told each other to keep believing. The offense had complete belief that our defense was going to fight back and give us a chance in the second half,” said Horkan. “It came down to execution and playing loose because with such a large deficit, we truly had nothing to lose. The closeness of our group really came through, with each of us looking forward to the next play.”
The Camels kept the pressure on, scoring two goals in the opening six minutes of the quarter to give them life. Trinity then responded to make it 15-10 with less than eight minutes to go. But Conn still didn’t give up, clawing back three goals to make it 15-13 with just one minute remaining to make the comeback complete. It looked hopeless to all observers but not to the men on the field. With seventeen seconds left, Ryan Breheny ‘26 cut the deficit in half and kept the possibility of a comeback alive. The Camels won the ensuing faceoff and got the ball to Walker who, despite having multiple bodies in front of him, slotted the tying goal into the back of the net from the middle of the field with just five seconds left.
With that the Camels had come back to force overtime, but everyone knew it wasn’t over just yet. They needed to come up big once more in order to make it all worth it. However, Horkan and the team were not nervous. “I personally was not nervous for overtime. A lot had just gone our way during the 4th quarter, and our team’s resilience gave me a lot of confidence. Right before we took the field, Coach Nagle encouraged us with a big smile on his face and told us to play loose and for each other,” said Horkan. “Our group brings so much passion and fight every day, so overtime was just another challenge that we were looking forward to facing”.
In overtime, the first two minutes were tense and the crowd held its breath. But with just over two minutes remaining in overtime, Andrew Rainville ‘28 swung around the back of the goal and found Horkan in front of the net who fired the winning shot home to complete the miraculous comeback. The crowd went wild and all of Horkan’s teammates swarmed him to celebrate. The atmosphere of the crowd was key to the Camels success. “The atmosphere at Silfen was incredible. Huge credit to the defense for getting the first stop in overtime, allowing us to get the ball and execute,” said Horkan. “Celebrating with my friends after the goal was the best moment I’ve had at Conn, especially after a huge rivalry win. Overtimes and comebacks are always the most exciting, but to come out with the team win makes that night so special.”
This win for the Camels will likely go down as the defining moment of the season. A video of the last minute and overtime winning goal was posted by The Lacrosse Network, an Instagram account with more than 694,000 followers, has garnered more than 408,000 views and 20,500 likes. Although they now sit at 1-8 against NESCAC opponents and look unlikely to qualify for the NESCAC tournament, which would mark the third straight season of them missing the tournament, this win and this moment for Horkan and for the rest of the team is one that won’t be forgotten very quickly. The adversity and poise that they showed was inspiring. Down so late in the game it would have been easy to give up and take the loss but the guys on the field that day fought for each other and came away with an all time great moment for the program.
