March 29, 2008

Box Score

Baltimore, Md. - Senior Bo Tripodi (Hauppauge, N.Y.) scored a season-high five goals, but it was not enough to overcome six straight UMBC scores over the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarters as the #13 Retrievers came up with a 14-12 men's lacrosse win over Stony Brook. It was the first America East game of the season for both teams. Senior Rhys Duch (Victoria, British Columbia) led the Seawolves with seven points on three goals and four assists.

"The bottom line is we are giving up way too many goals," said Stony Brook head coach Rick Sowell. "We have to find a way to keep the score down, it is putting too much pressure on our offense. It is tough to be successful giving up as many goals as we have."

UMBC (5-3, 1-0 America East) got on the board first with a goal three minutes in from Matt Latham, but Stony Brook (4-4, 0-1 America East) came back with a pair to take its first lead of the game. At the 8:14 mark Ryan Hughes (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) notched the first one for the Seawolves off an assist from Duch. SBU then won the ensuing faceoff and scored immediately when Tripodi found the back of the net. UMBC responded with four straight goals over a five-minute span to erase the SBU advantage. Duch ended the Retriever run with 1:43 left to make it 5-3 after one quarter.

After UMBC went up 6-3 early in the second on another Latham goal, Stony Brook put together its first offensive charge of the night. Duch started it off with an unassisted score at 12:48, igniting a four-goal Seawolf run that ended with 3:59 to play in the half when senior Bobby Trenkle (Commack, N.Y.) took a pass from senior Owen Adams (Norwalk, Conn.) from behind the goal and scorched a shot past the Retriever goalie to put Stony Brook back on top, 7-6. UMBC came back a minute later with a score that tied the game at 7-all, which is where it stayed at the half.

After the half, the two teams traded goals in the opening minutes of the third quarter. Stony Brook got scores from freshman Jordan McBride (New Westminster, British Columbia) and Tripodi, but the Retrievers matched it and with 11:16 left the score remained tied, this time at 9-9. UMBC then got two goals while holding the Seawolves at bay over the final 10 minutes of the quarter to take an 11-9 edge into the fourth.

Those two goals proved to be the beginning of UMBC's six-goal run as the Retrievers went on to start the fourth quarter with four scores over the first seven and a half minutes to go up 14-9. Tripodi scored twice in a span of 24 seconds, bringing SBU within three at 14-11 with 6:49 left, but the Seawolves could only mange one more McBride goal before the end of the game as UMBC hung on for the win.

McBride was the only other Stony Brook player with multiple goals, finishing with a pair. Bobby Trenkle finished with a pair of assists for the Seawolves. Latham led UMBC with four goals.

Stony Brook returns to LaValle Stadium for its next game when it hosts Vermont on Saturday, April 5 at 4:00 p.m.