The Seawolves (7-9) started off the semifinal game of the America East Championship Tournament strong, scoring seven of the first nine goals, but just could not defeat the number one seed Great Danes of Albany (12-4). The final score was 17-15, Albany’s biggest lead the entire game.

The goal that gave number four seed Stony Brook the 7-2 lead was scored by freshman attack Brody Eastwood off of an assist from sophomore attack Mike Rooney. He scored seven goals, six of which were scored in the first half. Rooney added one to the scoreboard, but also played a big role in Eastwood’s scoring. He assisted four of Eastwood’s goals and had six overall.

Freshman goalkeeper Dan Shaughnessy finished the game with 12 saves and the season with 10 or more saves in five straight games.

But despite their efforts, Albany’s Thompson trio was just too hard to defeat.

Collectively, Albany America East Player of the Year sophomore Lyle Thompson, his brother, junior Miles and their cousin, junior Ty, scored nine goals and had eight assists. Lyle led the team in goals with four and Miles led the team in assists, also with four.

It seemed like the Seawolves had control over the game until three back to back Albany goals from John Maloney, Derrick Eccles and Tim Cox, were scored with just under six minutes to go in the third quarter. This put the Great Danes ahead by one.

But the Seawolves were not ready to give up just yet. Senior midfielder Jeff Tundo, freshman Challen Rogers and freshman Chris Hughes responded with one each, which put Stony Brook up by two.

Both the Seawolves and the Great Danes were at each other’s throats after that.

Tundo finished the game with two goals and three assists. Rogers finished with one goal and two assists. Freshman attack Jake Sichenzia added one goal and made two assists, and sophomore midfielder Mike Andreassi also scored one goal.

Out of the 178 goals scored this season, 132 of them were scored by freshmen and sophomores.

Although this is the first season since 2008 that Stony Brook will not play in the conference finals, head coach Jim Nagle is looking forward to next season.  “We’re the youngest team in the conference,” he said. “The future’s bright.”