Nobody is going to rain on their parade.
The day started out beautiful with clear skies a 3-0 Stony Brook lead. But as the second period started dark clouds settled over University Field and the Seawolves pulled out a 9-7 victory over Marist before the downpour set in again.
In the second period, Marist’#146;s Pat Van Horne scored for the Red Foxes.
Then Paul Donohue from Marist scored back to back goals.
Marist went into halftime with a tied ball game and the momentum.
During halftime, the sky opened up and drenched the field, turning it into nothing more than a mud pit.
‘The rain really helped us,’ Kevin Pall said. ‘It slowed their momentum down a lot.’
Halftime was extended to 35 minutes because of lighting. After returning to the field for the second half the Seawolves played with their own electricity.
Scoring five unanswered goals made it 8-3 with 7:42 left in the game. But Marist didn’t let up.
They made a late run, scoring two goals in 35 seconds, making it 8-5. But the Seawolves had an answer; Pall scored with an assist from Michael Dworczyk.
Marist made a run of their own in the 4th quarter, scoring two goals at 3:26 and 1:48 remaining. But the Seawolves held them off.
‘We didn’t play up to par today,’ Eric Hatkewitz said. ‘We didn’t play at the level we should be playing.’
Despite the victory, head coach John Espey said he was disappointed with his team’s intensity.
‘They have enough good players to hurt us,’ said head coach John Espey. ‘We thought if we kept a fast pace we would slow them down, but it didn’t.’
The Seawolves out-shot Marist 52-26 on the day, but Marist’s sophomore Brain Schumeyer turned in an outstanding performance with 24 saves.
‘We didn’t hit our shots today,’ Tris Gillen said. ‘We lacked intensity and that hurt us, and it showed in our shooting.’ Gillen had a shot ricochet off the net pole earlier in the game.
SBU plans to refocus against a Villanova that won’t allow the sloppy play that earned them a victory yesterday.
‘We can’t afford to do that on Saturday,’ Hatkewitz said. ‘We seem to play to teams levels, whether that be up or down. So I’m not too worried.’
With a big conference win against Vermont last week Hatkewitz said he knows the Seawolves will bring more fire against Villanova.
‘They are a great team, but we have the capability to win,’ he said.
Pall, who scored five goals in the game, was adamant about building off of yesterday mistakes.
‘We need to start taking everyone more seriously,’ Pall said. ‘But I’m sure it’ll be a close game this weekend, at the very least entertaining.’
The game against Villanova will be played at home at 1:00p.m.
