Facing off against a formidable opponent, the Binghamton men’s lacrosse team struggled against America East (AE) foe Albany on Saturday afternoon. The Bearcats (1-1, 1-1 AE) failed to maintain control of the ball in a 19-7 home loss to the Great Danes (3-1, 2-1 AE)
Entering the second quarter, the Bearcats were down by just one goal. However, Albany adjusted its defense and limited the Bearcats to one goal and eight shots on goal in the second quarter, which set the tone for the rest of the match.
“They had at least three or four goals in transition of those nine — we fouled way too much against a team like that to give them all those extra man-up opportunities,” said Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown. “They’re going to cash in on some of them and they did. Those couple of things snowballed against us and we didn’t respond well. We had responded well when we went down 3-0 and did some good things, but the second quarter got away from us.”
Throughout the game, Albany picked up 43 ground balls compared to the Bearcats’ 29.
The Great Danes were led by their potent attack line, senior attack Tehoka Nanticoke and graduate student attack Jakob Patterson. Nanticoke scored his 100th career goal against BU and led all players with six goals.
“They like to make it hectic up and down the field, and then get the ball in [Nanticoke and Patterson’s] sticks in those hectic situations and let them use their natural talent,” McKeown said. “In between the line transition is what really hurt us the most. They got the ball in those hectic situations and were able to put it in the back of the net.”
One bright spot for Binghamton was a strong performance sophomore faceoff specialist Matthew DeSouza, who went 13-23 in the circle.
“[DeSouza] had another great game which was awesome,” McKeown said. “To string two good ones together is promising for us, as getting the ball is huge. I was proud of the way he scrapped. He was very scrappy on ground balls even when he didn’t win the initial clamp on the faceoff.”
Senior defender Tom Galgano added four caused turnovers for the Bearcats. Both Binghamton goalies, redshirt sophomore Teddy Dolan and senior Rob Martin, faced a high volume of shots from Albany’s high-powered offense. The two combined for 19 saves against the Great Danes’ 38 shots on goal.
“[Dolan] and [Martin] combined for a bunch of saves,” McKeown said. “There were a lot of shots on goal and a lot of opportunities. There were a few times where I thought they got easy ones on the crease and those guys are so skilled, so they’re going to put those in the back of the net.”
Binghamton will look to bounce back from its first loss of the season with a game against UMBC on Wednesday, March 24. Faceoff is set for 4 p.m. at the Bearcats Sport Complex in Vestal, New York.