April 26, 2008

Box Score

Albany, N.Y. - Stony Brook blanked Albany in the first quarter of their America East men's lacrosse game tonight, but the Great Danes managed to overcome a four-goal deficit as they came up with a 10-7 win in the final regular season game of the season. Freshman Jordan McBride (New Westminster, British Columbia) scored four goals for the Seawolves, who will play the Danes again on Thursday in one semi-final of the America East Tournament.

"We got off to a great start tonight," said head coach Rick Sowell. "But we just could not keep it going. Their defense got some stops against us and they scored a couple of goals and got back in the game."

After freshman Adam Rand (Niantic, Conn.) won the opening faceoff, Stony Brook (7-6, 3-2 AE) struck quickly, shocking Albany just 10 seconds in when freshman Kevin Crowley (New Westminster, British Columbia) found McBride with a pass that he put away for the quick 1-0 advantage. Stony Brook went on to take advantage of seven turnovers and four failed clears by the Great Danes in the opening quarter to keep pressure on the Albany goal. It paid off at the 5:28 mark when senior Rhys Duch (Victoria, British Columbia) scored unassisted to make it 2-0. McBride then converted on back-to-back man-up opportunities, one at the end of the first and the other a minute into the second quarter that put the Seawolves on top 4-0.

Albany (7-7, 4-1 AE) then got its first goals of the night, putting in a pair a minute apart just a minute after McBride's second man-up goal to make it 4-2. Stony Brook answered the Danes' scores at the 8:47 mark of the second when freshman Timmy Trenkle (Commack, N.Y.) fed senior Bo Tripodi (Hauppauge, N.Y.) who then fired one past the Albany keeper to push the Stony Brook advantage to 5-2.

That score proved to be the final goal for the Seawolves for nearly a quarter and a half, however, as the Albany defense held Stony Brook without a goal until the opening minute of the fourth quarter. The Great Danes scored three more times in the second, capping things off when goalkeeper Brett Queener made a save and brought the ball all the way into the offensive end of the field. He passed the ball to Jordan Levine who then passed back to Queener who scored the game-tying goal just 1:25 left before the half.

Albany added two more goals in the third while holding Stony Brook to four shots and no goals to take a 7-5 lead. Ten seconds into the fourth Tripodi broke the scoring drought for the Seawolves, getting his second of the game to pull Stony Brook within one at 7-6. That would be as close as it would get for Stony Brook as Joe Pompo scored twice inside of a minute a little more than halfway through the quarter to give the Danes their largest lead of the game at 9-6.

McBride picked up his fourth of the game with 2:26 left to make it a two goal game, but the Seawolves could not get any closer as Albany scored on a man-up opportunity with 40 seconds left to clinch the win.

McBride led Stony Brook with four points on his four scores, with Duch finishing with three points on a goal and a pair of assists. Pompo finished with three goals for Albany, with Levine adding five points on a goal and four assists.

Stony Brook will be the No. 3 seed at next week's America East Tournament which will be hosted by UMBC. Albany, the No. 2 seed, and Stony Brook will face each other again on Thursday, May 1 at 4:00 p.m. at UMBC. The winner will advance to the championship game on May 3 at 7:30 p.m.