The Stony Brook men’s lacrosse team found themselves on the wrong end of a firefight-turned-stalemate on Saturday, losing a heartbreaking America East opener against UMBC by a final score of 13-12 in quadruple overtime.
The longest game in Stony Brook’s time in Division I started well for the Seawolves, who took a 7-5 advantage into the first half. Leading the way was graduate attackman Tom Haun, whose hat trick moved him to 102 career goals and made him only the eighth player in Seawolves history to reach triple digits in career goals. Graduate midfielder Chris Pickel Jr., redshirt-freshman attackman Dylan Pallonetti and junior midfielder Matt Anderson all added two goals a piece in the effort. Rounding out the scoring was graduate midfielder Matt DeMeo, graduate attackman Cory VanGinhoven and redshirt-senior midfielder Wayne White.
However, head coach Anthony Gilardi’s first America East game wouldn’t end as well as it started, as the Retrievers fought back with five third-quarter goals en route to a tie by the end of regulation. While senior attacker Brett McIntyre led UMBC with four goals, it was sophomore attackman Nick Dupuis who scored on a man-up opportunity in the fourth overtime period to secure a hat trick and the win over the Seawolves.
“I thought we played hard and competed the entire game. It just comes down to executing the play that needs to be made, especially in the clearing game,” Gilardi said in a postgame press release. “The field was titled the entire second half, and we need to be able to get a stop and clear the ball. We had a lot of opportunities in the overtimes and just couldn’t finish one.”
The loss comes as a shock for a Seawolves team that dominated overtime games in the shortened 2020 season, as junior midfielder Caleb Pearson single-handedly won the Seawolves three games with his overtime scoring efforts. Coming off their collapse last week to rival Hofstra, a Stony Brook team picked as the preseason favorites in the America East are now staring at a two-game losing streak in games they were initially leading in.
The road certainly will not get any easier in their next matchup, as the Seawolves will travel to the Carrier Dome to face the Syracuse Orange on Friday, March 12 before returning to Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium to face America East newcomers NJIT two days later on Sunday, March 14.
