Stony Brook University’s #8/8 men’s lacrosse team finished a perfect conference season by trouncing the Vermont Catamounts 16-10 at LaValle Stadium Saturday night, winning the program’s first ever America East regular season title.
The Seawolves (10-3) finished conference play at a perfect 5-0, capping a six-game winning streak by clinching the regular season crown and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
Senior Tom Compitello scored once and added a career-high five assists. Junior Kevin Crowley continued his outstanding play at home with a five-goal performance, matching a career-high.
Senior goalkeeper Charlie Paar had 10 saves for the Seawolves in 52 minutes of work.
The Catamounts (3-12, 2-3 AEC) dropped their third straight, but continue to the America East playoffs thanks to Albany defeating Binghamton.
If there’s one thing you can’t do against the explosive Stony Brook offense, it’s leave the defense on the bus.
But Vermont may as well have done just that, as the Seawolves jumped out to a 6-0 lead over the first quarter, adding a seventh 50 seconds into the second quarter courtesy of Crowley.
When Vermont finally got on the board at the 11:21 mark of the second quarter, the Seawolves hadn’t been scored upon for 84:50. The Seawolves blanked Albany, 15-0, last weekend, and hadn’t been scored on since Andy Cook of Binghamton scored with 6:31 left in the Seawolves’ 17-16 victory. In that time, the Seawolves had netted 25 goals.
Stony Brook scored just once more before halftime, as sophomore Kyle Belton score his 18th of the season.
But it was Vermont that enjoyed the majority of the possession, carefully measuring each shot with the understanding that a miss would unleash some of the nation’s top scorers on the other end.
The Catamounts slowly carved Stony Brook’s lead to four goals with 0:01 left on the clock and the teams headed into the locker rooms with the score at 8-4 in favor of the hosts.
Vermont scored first out of the break, but the Seawolves turned up the offensive heat once again, roasting the Catamounts for seven unanswered goals to take a commanding 15-5 lead.
It took Vermont another 15 minutes to find the scoreboard, finally scoring at the 11:25 mark of the fourth quarter.
But it was too late for any sort of comeback, as the Seawolves expertly handled possession in the final ten minutes.
Despite adding just one more goal, Stony Brook was able to dictate play, running circles around the Vermont goal and zipping the ball across LaValle Stadium’s turf surface to hold on for the 16-10 championship-clinching victory.
Nine different players scored for the Seawolves on the evening, including Belton, junior Timmy Trenkle and sophomore Robbie Campbell who had two each.
A Binghamton loss on Saturday sets up a rematch at LaValle Stadium on Wednesday night as the fourth-seeded Catamounts will return to take on the top-seed Seawolves in the semifinals of the America East Championship Tournament.
