Stony Brook Moves Into Tie Atop America East
from press release
STONY BROOK, N.Y. - Stony Brook's offense
stayed in a high gear tonight as the Seawolves saw their goal total
increase in each of the first three quarters as they downed America
East rival Binghamton in men's lacrosse action in LaValle Stadium.
Three different players scored three goals for Stony Brook,
including sophomore Kevin Crowley (New Westminster, B.C.) who led
the squad with five points on three goals and a pair of assists.
The victory moved SBU into a first-place tie with UMBC in the
league standings and assured the Seawolves of a berth in the
America East Championship.
"We played a pretty good ball game tonight," said Stony Brook head
coach Rick Sowell. "It was the best game of the season for us. We
have been practicing well the last couple of weeks and you could
see things coming together. Today it just seemed like it clicked;
we are playing pretty good lacrosse right now."
It was Crowley who got things going for Stony Brook (7-4, 3-1
America East), notching an unassisted goal just a minute and a half
in. Stony Brook clung to its lead until midway through the quarter
when Binghamton (2-11, 1-3 America East), took advantage of its
first man-up opportunity to tie things up on a shot from Frank
Donlon. The Seawolves struck back in the final minutes of the
quarter, getting goals from sophomore Jordan McBride (New
Westminster, B.C.), his 30th of the season, and sophomore Timmy
Trenkle (Commack, N.Y.) to take a 3-1 lead after a quarter of
play.
Freshman Kyle Belton (Langley, B.C.) increased the Stony Brook
advantage to three goals, putting one past the Bearcat goalkeeper
after taking a pass from McBride. Freshman Josh Russell (Denver,
Colo.) then capped off a 4-0 SBU run with his first career goal at
the 9:21 mark. After Binghamton got one back on a goal from Brian
Donahue, Belton notched his second on a man-up opportunity before
Crowley put another unassisted goal on the board with just 16
seconds left in the half to put the Seawolves up 7-2.
Stony Brook then came out in the third quarter and essentially put
the game away with a five-goal burst. The Seawolves notched three
of those in the first half of the quarter, getting scores from
freshman Robbie Campbell (Delta, B.C.), McBride and Belton, to take
a 10-2 lead. Binghamton did not go quietly, however, coming back to
score three times in a four-minute span to cut the Stony Brook lead
down to 10-5. McBride and freshman Jared LeVerne (Jericho, N.Y.)
then scored unassisted goals just 33 seconds apart near the end of
the quarter to halt the Bearcat threat and essentially put the game
out of reach.
Binghamton out scored Stony Brook 4-2 in the fourth quarter, but
the 12-5 lead the Seawolves had going into the final stanza was
more than enough to hold off the Bearcats. Binghamton out shot
Stony Brook, 31-30, but the Seawolves held a significant, 44-24,
advantage in ground balls. Stony Brook also won the battle in the
face-off circle, taking 16 of 25 attempts, led by sophomore Adam
Rand's (Niantic, Conn.) 15-of-20 performance.
Crowley, McBride and Belton all scored three goals for Stony Brook,
which had seven different players score. McBride has now scored in
18 straight games for the Seawolves, who have scored 10 or more
goals in each game of their three-game win streak. Donlon led
Binghamton with three goals, while Chris Mulheron added four
assists for the Bearcats.
