STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The Stony Brook men's lacrosse team (1-2) used a first quarter surge to power past Air Force (2-2), 15-8, to pick up its first win of the season in its home opener on Friday. The 15 goals were the most that the Seawolves scored in a game since they found the back of the net 20 times in a win over NJIT on April 9, 2022.
Stony Brook received contributions from six different goal scorers en route to the victory. Senior attacker
Dylan Pallonetti and senior attacker
Blake Behlen fueled the Seawolves' offense, each finishing the game with a hat trick.
Pallonetti tied a career-high with his six goals and set a new career-high in assists and points, dishing out four helpers to total 10 points. Behlen also tied a career-high, finding the back of the cage four times in the contest. Graduate attacker
Jonathan Huber recorded his first goals at Kenneth P. Lavalle Stadium. Huber tallied a pair of goals and added an assist in his home debut.
Air Force jumped out to an early 2-0 lead within the first eight minutes of the game courtesy of back-to-back goals from Tommy Hellman and Aidan Tolen. However, Stony Brook responded with six unanswered goals that was sparked by graduate midfielder
Matt Anderson when he found the back of the net off an assist from Pallonetti with 6:03 left to play in the first quarter. The Seawolves went into the halftime break with a 6-3 lead over the Falcons.
Stony Brook pulled away from Air Force in the third quarter as they outscored them, 5-2, in the frame to take a 11-5 advantage into the fourth. The Seawolves sealed the game in the fourth quarter as they received goals from Behlen, junior attacker/midfielder
Noah Armitage, Pallonetti, and Huber to ice the game.
STATS AND NOTES
- Pallonetti tied a career-high with his six goals and set a new career-high in assists and points, dishing out four helpers to total 10 points. Pallonetti extended his goal scoring streak to 31 games; hisgoal scoring streak is the second-longest in the nation as he has scored a goal in every collegiate game that he has played in.
- Behlen also tied a career-high, finding the back of the cage four times in the contest. It was the fourth time in his career that he has recorded a four-goal game.
- Huber recorded his first goals at Kenneth P. Lavalle Stadium. Huber tallied a pair of goals and added an assist in his home debut.
- Freshman attacker Ronnie Kraemer recorded his first career goal in his collegiate debut.
- Senior face-off specialist Renz Conlon went 15-of-25 on face-offs and picked up a game-high 11 ground balls. The 15 face-off wins, and 11 ground balls were both season-highs.
- Armitage tied a career-high two assists and extended his goal scoring streak to five consecutive contests.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"I think it starts off with that it feels good to win. We're excited and I think winning the game is one thing, but I think the practice piece was the big reason we won this game. We've had a lot of guys banged up throughout the start of the season, this was the largest number of healthy guys we've had at practice this week. The guys practiced their tails off Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and it showed. It is the cleanest game we have played. That second quarter was a little low defensively, but other than that it is the most consistent we've looked which is our goal, every game get a little bit better," said head coach
Anthony Gilardi.
"When you look back on the week, we had a great week of practice where the energy was up. We had a great practice Tuesday and I think we were just feeding off of that. It's tough to see the boys at 0-2, but way to bounce back and fight. We've had a lot of adversity so it's a good feeling and we're looking forward to Sunday," said senior attacker
Dylan Pallonetti.
UP NEXT
Stony Brook returns to Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on Sunday, February 26, when it goes head-to-head against Sacred Heart. Face-off is set for 12 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on FloLive.
