On Sunday afternoon, the Stony Brook’s men’s lacrosse team came back from a 10-4 second-half deficit to defeat Binghamton, 14-13, with a winning goal in overtime.
Junior midfielder Challen Rogers scored the winning goal with 50 seconds left in overtime with an assist from senior attackman Mike Rooney after Binghamton lost possession for being offsides.
“We always practice getting up field, getting up field, so we busted it and we swung it down to me at ‘x’ and then I think someone caught it and then Challen came almost over the top and curled in so I just hit him. He just took it and buried it, it’s a big goal,” Rooney said.
Rooney totaled nine points in the game, breaking the career and season records for points scored by a Stony Brook player, scoring two goals and dishing seven assists.
“I didn’t even know, that’s great,” Rooney said.
Kevin Crowley, who played from 2008-2011, previously held the career record with 232 points.
“Kevin was a great player. I played with him one year, it was awesome,” Rooney said. “It’s nice to get that, worked hard, but just focused on the next game.”
“I think he has just had such a great year,” Head Coach Jim Nagle said. “Just watching his maturation process has been great to see, really happy for him.”
The Seawolves had a rough start in the first quarter, as Binghamton took a 4-1 lead. In the second quarter, Binghamton maintained its lead, as the Bearcats scored another four goals while Stony Brook only tallied three, making it 8-4 Bearcats at the half.
“I thought we had our worst half of the year,” Nagle said. “They came out and they were ready to play, but outworked us, which typically hadn’t happened all year to this team.”
Stony Brook was down 8-4 at halftime, and Binghamton scored two more goals in the beginning of the third quarter, giving the Bearcats a six-goal lead. Stony Brook responded strongly with a change in momentum, scoring the next six goals in the game and tying it at 10-10.
“I think we brought our energy up a little bit,” Rooney said.
The game went back and forth in the fourth quarter and it was tied at 13-13 for the start of the extra period. The overtime goal by Rogers won Stony Brook the game and clinched its spot in the America East Conference Tournament. This is the 14th straight year the Seawolves will participate in the conference tournament.
Junior attackman Brody Eastwood scored a game-high five goals, while freshman attackman Jake Sheets scored two goals and added an assist on the afternoon. Sophomore midfielder Ryan Bitzer and freshman midfielder McLean Chicquen each put a ball in the net.
“It’s a big win, obviously it goes into overtime, you want to win the games,” Rooney said. “We’ve lost a lot of close games the past few years so it’s good to get one our way.”
“Just real proud of the way they fought back and the poise that Mike Rooney had at the end of that game was really something we hadn’t had from anybody since I’ve been here,” Nagle said.
The Seawolves go on to play Hartford on Friday, April 24. The Seawolves can secure the second seed with a win against the same team.
“We finally get a week to practice a lot,” Rooney said. “It’s been a tough stretch for us, but we get to get back to our fundamentals and stuff in practice.”
