A week after letting in only three goals against No. 15 Drexel, Binghamton University men’s lacrosse goalie Larry Kline could have been due for a letdown against the Marist Red Foxes.
But the senior and his defense, which let in 9.62 goals per game last year, turned in another fantastic performance on Saturday at Marist, allowing just one goal in a 5-1 victory against the Red Foxes (0-2).
Jake Boyce scored two goals in the fourth quarter to lead Binghamton (1-1), but everyone was buzzing about Kline, who made 12 saves, including five in the last period.
“He’s doing an awesome job. I can’t even describe it,” Boyce said.
Offensively, the Bearcats still had trouble finishing their shots, but their five goals were still an improvement over the two they scored against Drexel.
“I think coach [Stephenson] put it well the other day: We’re playing well up until the point where we shoot,” Kline said. “Our opportunities are there, but we’re not finishing the play.”
Junior J.P. Wioncek won just two of 10 faceoffs, and Marist scooped 23 ground balls to Binghamton’s 12. Although the Red Foxes controlled the ground game, the Bearcat defense stemmed the tide and forced Marist to take tough shots, easing the load for Kline.
“They definitely got more ground balls than us. We can’t let teams do that in the future and expect to win,” Kline said. “I know our face-off guys are good, and I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. They’ll be fine the rest of the way.”
Freshman Derrick Danieu once again led the Bearcat defense, which has allowed only four goals in two games, and covered Marist’s top attackmen. Sophomore Drew Wichmann added a goal and assist.
Though Binghamton is not setting offensive records so far, Boyce sees improvement since the first outing.
“Our offense can become a high scoring team,” he said. “Even against Drexel we had a lot of transition opportunities. I don’t think we slow the game down a lot, although I know the score might make it seem like we do. What’s happening is we’re just not putting the shots in the back of the net.”
Still, Kline thinks the goal scoring must improve if the Bearcats are going to have a chance against high-scoring teams like Cornell, Syracuse and Albany, all of who remain on the schedule.
“You do take a glance at some of the other teams on the schedule, and you’ve got to put up goals,” Kline said. “Syracuse and Cornell, those teams put up at least 12-13 goals a game. For us to hang with them, we’ll have to put up that amount of goals also.”
Yet, the goalie says his team is not looking past Sacred Heart, which visits the Bearcat Sports Complex this Saturday at 2 p.m.