Men’s Lax End Season with Tourney Loss
A week after losing to the Great Danes in Albany, the Seawolves played them again, this time in Maryland in the American East Tournament. The winner would play for the American East Championship. The Seawolves came out on the losing end of the game, 12-9.
‘Albany is a good team,’ head coach Rick Sowell said. ‘They made some pretty good plays with some pretty good players. We just came up a bit short this time.’
After a slow start in the game, the Seawolves took the early lead at the ten minute mark on a goal by senior Bobby Trenkle. After a save by sophomore goaltender Rob Camposa, the Seawolves were able to clear the ball which led to the goal. The save was one of three for Camposa in the first quarter. He ended the game with 11 saves. ‘We played good team defense, but you can only stop them so much,’ said Sowell. After back to back goals by Albany, Trenkle found Senior Ryan Hughes who tied the game at two. Albany added another goal to end the quarter ahead 3-2.
Stony Brook scored three goals in 2:30 to open the second quarter. Senior Michal Trojanowski opened up the scoring with his third goal of the year. Hughes and Trenkle also scored to give Stony Brook its largest lead of the game, 5-3. Albany tied the score at five before they took a timeout and scored another goal to go into the half on top 6-5.
Before the half, Albany received an unsportsmanlike penalty, and the Seawolves made them pay early in the third. Freshman Jordan McBride scored just 12 seconds into the period off of a feed from senior Rhys Duch. That’s the last time the game would be tied. Albany put up four goals in a row in the third to take a 10-6 lead. Albany recorded 13 shots in the quarter with seven hitting the net. ‘They caught a hot spurt,’ Sowell said.
The fourth quarter started with a face off win by freshman Adam Rand and five seconds later, he scored his first goal of the season unassisted. Albany responded after a Stony Brook turnover with Corey Small scoring his fifth goal of the game. The defensive game took over for 10 minutes until senior Owen Adams found the back of the net. Only 14 seconds later, senior Bo Tripodi scored his 28th goal of the season to pull the Seawolves to within two. Duch picked up his second assist of the game.
After a Stony Brook turnover, a pushing penalty was called. Albany converted on the opportunity to extend the lead to 12-9. Stony Brook won the next face off, but after several turnovers by both teams, the clock ran out on the game, and on the season.
‘You can always contribute a loss to missed opportunities,’ said Sowell. ‘But we just got beat by a better team today.’
Stony Brook won more face-offs and picked up more ground balls. They were, however, out shot 50-37 for the game, and had four more turnovers than the Danes.
UMBC, the #1 seed, went on to win the Conference Tournament, beating Albany 14-13. UMBC came back from a 11-2 deficit in the second quarter to secured a spot in the NCAA Lacrosse Championship.
The Seawolves ended the season with a 7-7 record and 3-2 in the America East Conference. ‘This season was a step in the right direction,’ said Sowell. ‘We had a lot of freshman who contributed, and our recruiting classes continue to get better.’ Jordan McBride, who was named American East Rookie of the Year, lead the nation with a 3.31 goals per game average. The Seawolves also led the America East with goals per game at 11.9.
Several other players received All Conference honors, including freshman Kevin Crowley and sophomore Steve Waldeck along with McBride being placed on the All Conference first team, and seniors Bo Tripodi, Rhys Duch and Owen Adams on the All Conference second team.
