Reverse Survivor: Mount St. Mary's Wins Championship

You were a candle in the wind in 2014, Reverse Survivor. Flickering and then silent, you captured the hearts -- and souls -- of 16 teams, dwindling to six, then to two, and then smothered to just one: The Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers. It was a mere three-week burn, the shortest Reverse Survivor flame in the history of the competition. We all would have like to have known you better.

The light of Reverse Survivor was put out last night when Hobart -- one of two remaining eligible participants in the competition¹ -- traveled to Canisius and dropped the Griffs in overtime at Demske Sports Complex:

• Canisius 10, Hobart 11 (OT): Cam Stone's winner -- off of a question mark dodge -- with 43 seconds remaining in overtime gave Hobart its first win of the season, erasing the haunting memories of a five-loss start to the Statesmen's season. Hobart had been tantalizingly close to earning its first win of the year earlier in the season, falling in overtime to Binghamton on March 1st and failing to close against Colgate in Hamilton, allowing the Raiders to use a 5-0 run over the final 17:08 of play to give the Statesmen its two-goal loss. Against Canisius, though, Hobart's luck would turn: Deadlocked at nine (the Statesmen used a pragmatic 6-3 run from early in the third quarter to the 5:44 mark of the final period to tie the game at nine), Canisius would take a 10-9 lead with 4:16 remaining in regulation; Hobart would answer with a Cooper Stafaniak goal just three minutes later, knotting the scoreboard at 10 and pushing the game into overtime. The Statesmen could have evaporated into the ether like it had done throughout 2014, but assumed a battle-hardened mentality and rammed home the winner, spiting Reverse Survivor in the process.

The residue from Hobart's victory is that Mount St. Mary's -- currently 0-6 -- is the 2014 Reverse Survivor champion. The Mountaineers have struggled this season in a year of marked transition, and things aren't looking great for The Mount to bootstrap themselves from the ranks of the winless any time soon. Here's Mount St. Mary's remaining schedule:

There is potential salvation in the remaining slate, but The Mount still needs to move through this without many guarantees. Drexel is probably a no-go, but the UMBC-Robert Morris-Hobart-St. Joseph's stretch could provide some preferable circumstances for the Mountaineers. It isn't pretty for The Mount, but the schedule is the schedule at this point, and Reverse Survivor is cruel in this fashion.

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¹ First-year programs are not eligible for Reverse Survivor participation. Thus, only Hobart and Mount St. Mary's entered the week in contention for top honors.